James Saunders (composer)

James Saunders
Born1972 (age 52–53)
Kingston upon Thames, England
GenresExperimental
OccupationComposer
Websitewww.james-saunders.com

James Saunders (born 1972) is a British composer and performer of experimental music. He is Professor of Music and Head of the Centre for Musical Research at Bath Spa University.

Early life

Born in Kingston upon Thames, England, Saunders studied at the University of Huddersfield (1991–94) and then with Anthony Gilbert at the Royal Northern College of Music (1994–96). In 1998, he was a participant at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse where he was awarded a scholarship prize.[1] He participated again in 2000 and 2002.

Career

In 2001, he was a selected composer at the Ostrava New Music Days.[2] He held composition residencies at the Experimental Studio fur Akustische Künst in Freiburg in 2003 and 2007.[3]

His music has been played at international festivals, including Bludenz Tage fur zeitgemäßer Musik,[4] Brighton Festival, BMIC Cutting Edge,[5] Borealis,[6] Darmstadt,[7] Donaueschingen Festival,[8] Gothenburg Arts Sounds,[9] Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival,[10] Inventionen Berlin,[11] The Kitchen, Music We'd Like to Hear,[12] Ostrava New Music Days, Rainy Days,[13] Rational Rec,[14] Roaring Hooves, Spitalfields_Music,[15] SPOR,[16] Ultima,[17] and Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik[18]

Saunders' music has been performed internationally by ensembles and musicians including Apartment House, Arditti Quartet, asamisimasa, Sebastian Berweck, ensemble chronophonie, duo Contour, Rhodri Davies, Exaudi, Nicolas Hodges, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, Neue Vocalsolisten, Plus-minus ensemble, Psappha New Music Ensemble, ensemble recherche, Suono Mobile, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, and 175 East.

He is active as a performer of experimental music, notably in the duo Parkinson Saunders with Tim Parkinson and as director of the ensemble Material at Bath Spa University.

Saunders currently serves as a Professor of Music and as the Head of the Centre for Musical Research at Bath Spa University.[19] He is the co-author, with John Lely, of Word Events: Perspectives on Verbal Notation.[20] His research interests include open forms, notation, group behaviours, instrumentalisation, series and modularity. His interviews with composers and improvisers[21][22] focus on their working methods.

Music

Saunders' work explores modular[23] and serial structures and uses open forms.[24] Series such as #[unassigned] (2000–9)[25] and divisions that could be autonomous but that comprise the whole (2009–11) adopt a variable structure, comprising a selection of modules that can be combined in multiple ways to make new configurations for each performance. His music uses extended instrumental techniques and found objects as a means of exploring the sonic properties of materials.[26] It is “predominantly quiet, with sustained tones, often on the edge of inaudibility, interspersed with shorter sounds, all produced by an instrumentarium that mixes conventional musical instruments with a range of low-tech sound sources”.[27] He used interpersonal cueing systems to control the way his music is structured (things whole and not whole, 2011), and made distributed pieces that allow collaborative input from others (distribution study, 2011).[28]

Selected works

  • lots and lots for us to do (2014)
  • you say what to do (2014)
  • positions in the sequence correctly recalled (2014)
  • on bare trees (2014)
  • so many territories (2014)
  • everybody do this (2014)
  • interspersed sometimes with weeds and brambles (2013)
  • eight panels (2012)
  • what you must do, rather than must not do (2012)
  • overlay (2012)
  • small template (2012)
  • object network (2012–)
  • things whole and not whole (2011)
  • distribution study (2011)
  • location composites (2011–)
  • template (with alterations) (2010–)
  • surfaces (2010–)
  • geometria situs (2009–10)
  • divisions that could be autonomous but that comprise the whole (2009–11)
  • either/or (2008/9)
  • with paper (2006/8, 2009–)
  • #[unassigned] (2000–9)

References

  1. ^ "Saunders, James – JetztMusik – SWR2". swr.online.
  2. ^ web-evolution. "Rezidents".
  3. ^ Experimental Studio des SWR, 1971–2011
  4. ^ "Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik" (PDF). Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  5. ^ "BBC Hear and Now". BBC. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  6. ^ "Borealis 2009 Program". Borealis Festival. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  7. ^ Heidenreich, Achim (October 2000). "Mit Stecknadel und Heckenschere: Der Alltag hält Einzug bei den 40. Darmstädter Ferienkursen für Neue Musik". Neue Musikzeitung. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  8. ^ "Komponist: James Saunders". Donaueschinger Musiktage. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  9. ^ "2005 Göteborg Art Sounds". Göteborg Art Sounds. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  10. ^ "From Scratch". hcmf. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  11. ^ "Inventionen 2002 – Programmübersicht". Inventionen. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  12. ^ "2006". Music We'd Like to Hear. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  13. ^ "Rainy Days 2013". Rainy Days. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  14. ^ "The Rational Rec Gala Musical Finale". Rational Rec. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  15. ^ "Familiar/Unfamiliar". Spitalfields Music. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  16. ^ "you say what to do". SPOR Festival. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  17. ^ "Ultima 2004" (PDF). Ultima. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  18. ^ "Composer Archive". Kulturforum Witten. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  19. ^ "Bath Spa University – School of Music and Performing Arts". bathspa.ac.uk.
  20. ^ Lely, John; Saunders, James (3 May 2012). Word Events: Perspectives on Verbal Notation. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1-4411-7310-2.
  21. ^ Saunders, J (2009) Fourteen musicians. In: Saunders, J, ed. The Ashgate Research Companion to Experimental Music. Ashgate, Farnham and Burlington Vermont, pp. 221–368.
  22. ^ "interviews". James Saunders.
  23. ^ Saunders, J. (2008). "Modular Music", Perspectives of New Music, vol. 46/1 (Winter 2008): 152–193. Reprinted as: "Viefalt an Konfigurationen. Modulare Musik" (trans. M. Lichtenfeld), MusikTexte [de], 130 (August 2011): 58–77.
  24. ^ Nyfeller, M. (2011). "Konzeptionelle Spiele. Der Engländer James Saunders", MusikTexte, 130 (August 2011): 53–57.
  25. ^ Ryan, D. (2003). Zeitmaschinen: Die englischen Komponisten Bryn Harrison, Tim Parkinson und James Saunder. Dissonanz, #82 (August 2003): 20–5.
  26. ^ Saunders, J. (2013). Specific Objects? Distributed approaches to sourcing sonic materials in open form compositions. Contemporary Music Review, 32/5: 473–484.
  27. ^ Fox, C. (2008) James Saunders, Grove Music Online, [Accessed 19 October 2014]
  28. ^ Nicolai, O. (2011). Escalier du Chant: James Saunders, distribution study #1 [accessed 3 April 2013]

Further reading

  • Parkinson, T. (2011). "Une Présence Manifeste: Quelques Compositeurs Du Royaume-uni Don't J'aime La Musique", Revue & Corrigée, 90 (December 2011): 26–30.
  • Ryan, D. (2007). "Realising #0505-040606-[1]", Miser & Now, 10 (August 2007): 14–16.
  • Saunders, J. (2006). "What are you doing with your music?". In: Marley, B. and Wastell, M., eds. Blocks of Consciousness and the Unbroken Continuum, London: Sound 323 Press: 254–263.
  • Saunders, J. (2007). "Developing a Modular Music System". In: Waterman, A., ed. (2007). Agape. New York: Miguel Abreu Gallery: 36–40.
  • Saunders, J. (2007). "The Dictaphone in my Life". My Favorite Things – The Joy of the Gizmo: Leonardo Music Journal, 17 (2007): 33–34.
  • Saunders, J (28 January 2013). "Mutual effects: organization and interaction in the orchestral music of Christian Wolff". In Thomas, Philip; Chase, Stephen (eds.). Changing the System: The Music of Christian Wolff. Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4094-9405-8.
  • Saunders, J (2011). "Testing the consequences–multipart series in the work of the Wandelweiser composers." Contemporary Music Review, 30 (6): 497–524.
  • Saunders, J. (2013). "Specific Objects? Distributed approaches to sourcing sonic materials in open form compositions." Contemporary Music Review, 32/5: 473–484.