Tjusad
For flute, clarinet in Bb, horn in F, piano, violin, viola, violoncello and narrator
Fantasy music fiction
Tjusad, for large ensemble and narrator, is a self-illustrated/authored/composed story piece and was performed by Wolf Pack, a London-based contemporary music collective, in February 2014 at VAULT Festival. music for a house featured in METAPHONICA, an exhibition at Central Saint Martins during March 2015.
Tjusad is a piece which focusses on challenging the creative parameters within contemporary music composition. It attempts to open up this exclusive genre to young musicians and improve accessibility for listeners who are unfamiliar with experimental works. It explores the idea of ‘music as a work of art’ by literally integrating different creative forms.
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The narrator could be viewed as the 8th musician as they are a fundamental part of the ensemble and their story is told as much by the art as by the music. The illustrations cannot be separated from the musical notation as they are drawn in the score itself, predominantly in the bars without music, and visually portray the story.
By illustrating the score, the musicians’ performance experiences are greatly altered as they are forced to become more involved in the tale. This is further heightened by the fact that many of the conductor’s cues are given by specific moments in the narrator’s part. If the narrator fully engages with the creatures and mystical setting, and reads it aloud at a speed they feel is appropriate, the music and narration will always fall into place. Nevertheless, the music and text do not need to be entirely interdependent and can be heard separately. Furthermore, the ensemble could play alongside actors or live illustrators, who would re-create the drawings on stage during the performance. The object of each showing is to encourage the maximum level of interaction between artists as possible i.e. uniting numerous art forms on stage simultaneously. Preferably, performances would involve as many amateurs as realistically possible.
Another goal of this piece is to keep the imagination alive in young adults who, at this age, seem to begin to lose their ability to form new ideas that are not present to the senses. By creating a lighthearted work, younger generations may begin to take more interest in the field, and so in this way Tjusad intertwines both education and creativity.
Tjusad is innocence embodied and an example of how aesthetically pleasing experimental music can sound once its peculiarities are justified to the audience, in this case by the presence other artistic media.
Dedicated to the late Pete Handley, phenomenal percussionist and friend.