Iris ter Schiphorst
Expert on the In-Between (2000)
on the WP of the 'Ballade für Orchester: HUNDERT KOMMA NULL' (1999)
The field of music seems to me to be more polarised than ever; on the one hand, there is a music culture that does without notation entirely – at least without the traditional notation system (so-called pop music); on the other hand, there is a small circle of individuals who are entirely devoted to (new) notated music, or the notation of music.
Those who move between the two are often ridiculed by both sides... or even classified as traitors...
To get straight to the point: I am an expert in the 'in-between'... I always find myself somewhere in between... between media, styles, between writing and sound, hearing and seeing, between science and art, theory and practice... It is this place, the 'in-between', that I know particularly well, that interests me particularly...
In recent literary and cultural studies, a term has now been coined for a very specific "in-between": "semi-literate literature".
This refers to literature that is only very rudimentarily influenced and shaped by writing. "Semi-literate literature" is an "in-between"; it is written, but uses formal and stylistic criteria that are more characteristic of a non-literate culture.
These include, on the one hand, the manifold manifestations of repetition
(the basic principle of oral composition) and, on the other hand, the simultaneous use of different codes (such as melodic, rhythmic, choreographic and gestural) that 'intensify' the message; because in an oral culture, listeners must be addressed and 'touched' in a variety of ways and through different senses in order to receive and understand the message.
I should perhaps add here that the importance of an independent oral stylistics, as well as its influence on written culture, is only gradually being recognised.
And it is perhaps no wonder that this is happening at a time when the networking of a global information society is virtually complete. At a time when the laws of writing have triumphed.
There is no 'oral stylistics' in the global network. There, the message is extremely concise, reduced to a minimal code that can circulate completely detached from space and time, completely detached from bodies.
The opposite is true in 'oral cultures'... There, the 'message' is always bound to the body. To the body of the person presenting it and those receiving it, the 'listeners' (keyword: 'from mouth to ear' as opposed to 'from letter to eye').
At this point, I would simply like to assert that my music also always works with elements of so-called 'oral stylistics'. (In this respect, it has little to do with the gesture and attitude of much of New Music. Although ultimately all music – at least as long as it is intended to be performed – boils down to a situation that, in terms of its form, is reminiscent of the archaic situation of the 'mouth to ear' principle. Regardless of how 'new' the message is. In a performance, writing plays no role – at least for the listeners.)
For me, music is 'language' (whether I want it to be or not...). That means that, in a very traditional sense, I am concerned with expressing 'something', communicating something. The starting point is always my body, because whenever something moves me deeply, a kind of 'inner monologue' is set in motion within me, which takes place on very different levels, indeed across very different senses, and encompasses the entire body: a mixture of words, melodic and rhythmic phrases, impulses of movement and images that irrevocably belong together – and are often difficult to grasp in the medium of 'writing'. Nevertheless, I constantly try to incorporate this mixture, all these different levels, into my work. That's why genres often overlap in my work... (My first opera, Anna's Wake, for example, includes a 16 mm film, and the score of my chamber opera Silence Moves not only features a fully composed choreography of light and movement, but also a video installation composed into the sequence).
Of course, there are also works that deal exclusively with the code of music. For example, the "Ballade für Orchester: HUNDERT KOMMA NULL" (Ballad for Orchestra: ONE HUNDRED POINT ZERO). Nevertheless, there are also elements of 'oral stylistics' here... for example, a melody that runs through the entire piece like a kind of 'song' (albeit extremely alienated and orchestrated in a way that makes it clear that it is no longer believed in)... or rhythmic structures that are very gestural and physical in nature... very deliberately placed repetitions, etc., etc....
It is perhaps somewhat audacious to draw a connection between the findings of recent literary and cultural studies and my music in such a brief manner and in this way, as I have attempted to do here... (and after all, music is not literature – although it sometimes seems that way...). But perhaps certain musical idiosyncrasies can be viewed – and heard – in a slightly different light in this way... Perhaps it is possible to get a little closer to the nameless 'in-between' via such a detour...