Education on Plus-Minus Ensemble

Bath Spa University

Wed, 03 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Composition masters students, March-May 2021

Our regular project with Bath Spa University continues this year with online sessions spread over three months. Composers will write for viola, piano and percussion, with the focus on non-metrically synchronous works which might be performed whilst physically separated.

The works will be performed and recorded online on Wednesday 26th May.

Reid School of Music, Edinburgh University

Tue, 28 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Composition PhD students, July 2020

The original plan was a workshop and performances for trio of violin, clarinet and piano. We had met all three composers in November 2019 workshopping their ideas for these pieces, which helped greatly. After ’lock-down’, each composer had an individual online session with each musician to discuss aspects of their piece. A plan was then made as to the best way to record the pieces, be it with click track, overlaying tracks or improvising with given material.

Guildhall School of Music

Sun, 28 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The original project was for six Masters Composition students writing for a six piece ensemble. Discussing with the Guildhall we decided the numbers provided a perfect opportunity for each composer to work more intensively with one musician and create a solo piece. Composers were allocated a performer by the highly technical drawing of names from a hat and each composer had numerous consultations through video link to learn about the instrument in more detail and get feedback as the piece developed. Some also used electronics, mixed the musicians recordings with other material and others really explored the limits of just the instrument. As musicians we found this a rewarding and inspiring way to work.

Bath Spa University

Thu, 28 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Composition masters students, May 2020

Our regular project with Bath Spa University moved online, with postgraduate composers writing pieces for clarinet, cello and piano for remote recording. The composers benefitted from a joint workshop with each performer individually, where they could all learn from and comment on each other’s work in progress. The trio then recorded their parts separately to make the edited recordings below.

Barak Arbel: Reflections

Jamie Floyde: Fatalism

Jianan Wang: Unicorn

Liam Hayes: Revolve

Paige Halliwell: Iridescence

University of Surrey

Thu, 28 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Experimental conference call

A planned collaborative composition day with composer David Helbich was converted to an online experience based around the now ubiquitous video conference call. Plus-Minus created three videos to which students were invited to respond; the resulting short films were then used as building blocks for new compositions via a specially built website here.

David Lovatt competition

The brief for this year’s David Lovatt composition competition was to write a work for piano and electronics. After an in-person seminar in early March, just before lock-down, four composers were selected to take part. Mark Knoop worked with each student over several online sessions to record their pieces, and we then held a virtual concert to watch the finished videos together.