Soundpainting

"Soundpainting" is the name given to a kind of "live composition" technique developed by composer Walter Thompson. It's kind of like musical sign language in that the conductor makes hand signs to direct the performers about what to play. Check it out.

History of Soundpainting

Very cool...I've worked in this idiom myself. The concept of "composer as improvisor" has always intrigued me.

Dig also: Butch Morris, or John Zorn. There are many serious improvisors, who have developed personal systems of semiotic gestures to control and manipulate spontaneous music.

This is all very cool, thanks for pointing it out!

Anyone know if there are standardized signals for this across the board? Is Walter Thompson really the first to do this, or have other composers tried it before?

I know there are conductors who are using a very similar technique in rehearsing music without speaking. I was actually performing in one with a clinician conductor in my undergrad who showed how it was done. The principle behind it was to focus in on what performers heard during rehearsal and try to reduce the "outside noise" associated with speaking intermittently while rehearsing a piece. The mechanics, physiology, and to some extent, the psychology behind it were all remarkable.

I can't imagine how cool it would be to perform in an ensemble playing a live soundpainting work or the implications it would have for the performer's experience. I'd venture a guess it would work out pretty well for the performer if the soundpainting composer is worth their salt :)

This reminds me of how the monks used to practice their chants.

Well, I was going to say: "I only wish it produced more coherent music :\"

And then i noticed the hadyn one. nifty.

I can't imagine how cool it would be to perform in an ensemble playing a live soundpainting work or the implications it would have for the performer's experience. I'd venture a guess it would work out pretty well for the performer if the soundpainting composer is worth their salt :)

In my experience, conduction-type music requires savvy improvisors - for both prompter and players. This type of modular/real-time composing will be awkward if not approached with a compatible mind-set, and skill-set to match.

Walter Thompson came to Oberlin and did a workshop with the composition folk. I learned the hand signals that he uses for choir and went home and performed a piece using his method with my old high-school choir.

The hand signals he uses are codified to his method, though I can imagine it wouldn't be too difficult for you to come up with a new method of your own.

Conducted improvisation does not have to be improvised by the conductor. It's possible to write soundpainting cues on paper and use it as a guide for the ensemble. The improvisation element then becomes no different than that of a standard conductor - modifying dynamics, strength of attacks, etc.

So what are these hand signals? Is there any logical ordering to the signals, or do they seem pretty arbitrary?

I can also picture a sheet of just "notated figures" next to each hand signal as well, for solos and other gestural things for the applicable performers. Maybe some full ensemble stuff as well that can be queued by certain signals as well. There's pretty awesome potential here, and it's a pretty good "short-hand" method for those moments when you need a piece "then and there." Pretty cool.

So what are these hand signals? Is there any logical ordering to the signals, or do they seem pretty arbitrary?

I can also picture a sheet of just "notated figures" next to each hand signal as well, for solos and other gestural things for the applicable performers. Maybe some full ensemble stuff as well that can be queued by certain signals as well. There's pretty awesome potential here, and it's a pretty good "short-hand" method for those moments when you need a piece "then and there." Pretty cool.

The gestures vary from prompter to prompter. Butch Morris has developed a well-known system. Likewise Anthony Braxton or this Thompson fellow. John Zorn uses a unique combination of gestures, body parts, and colour-coded symbols and cue cards [see Cobra].

Some gestures, I'm sure you can imagine, are pretty universal: Long flowy movements = long, flowy music; sharp, pointillistic = short, staccato attacks...

Volume, density, melodic contour, orchestration, articulation, rhythms, even key signatures are among many things that are easily conveyed through non-verbal gestures.

Also, as you mentioned - the idea of written material being spontaneously cued: assigning a number or body part to a segment is one way. I have (as I'm sure many others have as well) taken it a step further in grabbing something played in the moment, assigning it to memory (tap forehead) to be recalled on request.

You can see that there's an ENDLESS supply of angles to take this - which is why I feel a revolution in modular music and comprovisation is just around the corner.