Soundpainting

Soundpainting is the live composing sign language created in 1974 by New York composer Walter Thompson for musicians, dancers, actors, poets, and visual artists. At present, the Soundpainting language comprises more than 1200 gestures that are signed by the composer/director, known as the Soundpainter, indicating the type of material desired of the performers. Direction of the composition is gained through the parameters of each set of signed gestures.[1]

History of Soundpainting

In 1974, after attending a few years at Berklee College of Music, Walter Thompson moved to his family's summer house in Woodstock, New York. There he received a grant from the National Endowment on the Arts to study composition and woodwinds with Anthony Braxton. During this period, he also studied dance improvisation with Ruth Ingalls in Woodstock.

Woodstock in the 1970s was an interesting place for creative music experimentation. The Creative Music Studio (CMS), founded by Karl Berger, Don Cherry, and Ornette Coleman, invited composers and performers such as John Cage, Ed Blackwell, Carlos Santana, Don Cherry, Anthony Braxton, and Carla Bley to give two-week workshop/performances with the students. The CMS was closed during the summers, but many of the students remained in Woodstock. Thompson organized jam sessions with these students. Out of these sessions Thompson formed his first orchestra and produced a series of concerts at the Woodstock Kleinert Gallery. The focus of the orchestra was on large-group, jazz-based improvisation. It was during these early days that Thompson began experimenting with signing. He created very basic gestures, asking for a long tone or improvisation in a pointillist style, for example.

Thompson moved to New York City in 1980 and formed The Walter Thompson Orchestra (then called The Walter Thompson Big Band) in 1984. During the first year with his orchestra, while conducting a performance in Brooklyn, New York, Thompson needed to communicate with the orchestra in the middle of one of his compositions. They were performing a section of improvisation where Trumpet 2 was soloing. During the solo, Thompson wanted to have one of the other trumpet players create a background. Not wanting to emulate bandleaders who would yell or speak out loud to their orchestra, Thompson decided to use some of the signs he had experimented with during his Woodstock days. In the moment, he made up these signs: Trumpet 1, Background, With, 2-Measure, Feel; Watch Me, 4 Beats. He tried it, but the group did not respond. At the next rehearsal, members of his orchestra asked what the signing was about and he told them. With support of the Orchestra, Thompson continued to develop the language further. During the next 10 years, Thompson developed Soundpainting into a comprehensive sign language for creating live composition. He continued to develop new gestures, and in the early 1990s, Thompson expanded the Soundpainting language to include actors, dancers, poets, and visual artists.

In the late 1990s, Mr. Thompson was invited by Dave Liebman and Ed Sareth to give a Soundpainting workshop at the IASJ Conference in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. This was the first time Mr. Thompson had shown Soundpainting to a European audience. Following the conference, there were many invitations to perform and teach Soundpainting. Most notable being an invitation from Francois Jeanneau to conduct a week-long workshop at the Conservatoire de Paris. Soundpainting is now being used in the professional and education arenas in many countries around the world.

Between 1998 and 2014 more than 20 ensembles have been founded specially in France. These ensembles utilise Soundpainting as a creative tool and a way to devise a performance that may even engage the audience itself. Most of them include actors and dancers as well as musicians. In 2013 the first international ('mondial') festival of Soundpainting was held in Paris, in October, directed by the soundpainter François Cotinaud : Soundpainting Festival. It featured seven or eight ensembles, including those of Walter Thompson himself as well as Angelique Cormier's and Benjamin Nid's.

In 2013 the International Soundpainting Federation (ISF) is founded in Lyon (France), for building University cursus of Soundpainting teaching.

Analysis

The Soundpainter (the composer) standing in front (usually) of the group communicates a series of signs using hand and body gestures indicating specific and/or aleatoric material to be performed by the group. The Soundpainter develops the responses of the performers, molding and shaping them into the composition then signs another set of gestures, a phrase, and continues in this process of composing the piece.

The Soundpainter composes in real time utilizing the gestures to create the composition in any way they desire. The Soundpainter sometimes knows what he/she will receive from the performers and sometimes does not know what he/she will receive – the elements of specificity and chance. The Soundpainter composes with what happens in the moment, whether expected or not.

The gestures of the Soundpainting language are signed using the syntax of Who, What, How and When. There are many types of gestures, some indicating specific material to be performed as well as others indicating specific styles, genres, aleatoric concepts, improvisation, disciplines, stage positions, costumes, props, among many others.

The Structure of Soundpainting

The Soundpainting gestures are grouped in two basic categories: Sculpting gestures and Function signals. Sculpting gestures indicate What type of material and How it is to be performed. Function signals indicate Who performs and When to begin performing. Who, What, How, and When comprise the Soundpainting syntax.

The Soundpainting syntax of Who, What, How, When and the two basic categories Sculpting Gestures and Function Signals are further broken down into six subcategories: Identifiers, Content, Modifiers, Go gestures, Modes, and Palettes.

  1. Identifiers are in the Function category and are Who gestures such as Whole Group, Woodwinds, Brass, Actor, Dancer, Group 1, Rest of the Group, etc.
  2. Content gestures are in the Sculpting category and identify What type of material is to be performed such as Pointillism, Minimalism, Long Tone, Play Can’t Play etc.
  3. Modifiers are in the Sculpting category and are How gestures such as Volume Fader and Tempo Fader.
  4. Go gestures are in the Function category and indicate When to enter or exit the composition and in some cases when to exit Content such as Snapshot or Launch Mode.
  5. Modes are in the Sculpting category and are Content gestures embodying specific performance parameters. Scanning, Point to Point, and Launch Mode are several examples of Modes.
  6. Palettes are in the Sculpting category and are primarily Content gestures identifying composed and/or rehearsed material (see Palettes in the Introduction section and the Glossary of Gestures for a more in-depth description).

Soundpainting ensembles

Name Country Town Year Number of artists Music Dance Actor Direction
Amalgammes France Paris 2005 31 yes yes yes Christophe Mangou
Anitya France Paris 2005 21 yes yes yes Christophe Cagnolari
BalBaZar France Paris 2003 16 yes no no Deniz Fisek
Batik Soundpainting Orchestra France Clermont-Ferrand 2009 20 yes yes yes Eric Chapelle
Berlin Soundpainting Orchestra Germany Berlin 2011 15 yes no no Hada Benedito
Brooklyn Soundpainting Ensemble United States New York City 2013 15 yes yes yes Dennis Shafer
CHEMIN FAISANT France Cannes 2012 10 yes yes Michel Yves-Bonnet
Le CuBe France Orléans 2011 10 yes yes yes Yann Kaddachi
DELIMELO France Bordeaux 1989 yes yes Eric Le Louvier
Helsinki Soundpainting Ensemble Finland Helsinki 2008 10 yes no no Sonja Korkman
KLANGFARBEN ensemble France Paris 2010 13-16 yes yes yes François Cotinaud
La LOUVE France Paris 2007 9 yes yes yes Rafële Arditti
Matters Belgique Saint-Gilles 2009 34 yes no yes Augustin de Bellefroid
Orchestres à vents de musique contemporaine (winds orchestra of contemporary music) France Antony 1985 40 yes no no Olivier Guion
OSL: Soundpainting Orchestra of Lorraine France Metz-Nancy 2011 20 yes yes yes Etienne Bouyer
The Playground Ensemble United States Denver, CO 2001 14 yes no no Conrad Kehn
SOS Enigmatic "Soundpainting Orchestra of Sarthe" France Le Mans 2012 15 yes no yes Gaëtan Coutable
Le SPANG! France Lyon 2009 22 yes yes yes Benjamin NID
SPECIES France Saint-Brieuc 2010 10 yes yes yes Stéphane Dassieu
SPENS France Cachan 2009 15 yes yes yes Pierre Sarrailh
SPIO (Soundpainting Italian Orchestra) Italy Milano 2005 11 yes no no Carlo Virzi
Le SPOUMJ France Paris 2005 20 yes yes yes François Jeanneau
SSSPPP Ensemble Soundpainting In Belgium Belgique yes yes yes
Surnatural Orchestra France Paris 2001 19 yes no no collectiv
Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble United States New York City 1997 5-9 yes yes yes Leese Walker
TSO Tours Soundpainting Orchestra France Tours 2006 12-23 yes yes yes Angélique Cormier
U.P! Universal Palette France Paris 2009 10-30 yes yes yes Sophie Le Roy, Laurent Gehant
WTO Walter Thompson Orchestra États-Unis New York 1984 8-25 yes yes yes Walter Thompson
WIZZ France Marseille 2010 15 yes yes yes David Carion

Festivals

References

  1. ↑ Duby, Mark (2006-05-20). "Soundpainting as a system for the collaborative creation of music in performance" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-04-04.

Recordings and movies

External links

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