Xenharmonic Praxis Summer Camp
Spaces (and scholorships!) are still available for a summer camp program spearheaded by ODDMUSIC Urbana-Champaign founders Jacob Barton and Andrew Heathwaite, in partnership with UnTwelve and the School for Designing a Society.
The event is known as the Xenharmonic Praxis Summer Camp, and takes place in the beautiful, pristine 320-acre mountains of West Virginia from July 25-August 5th at the Gesundheit! Institute (see some of the lovely pictures of the grounds at http://www.patchadams.org)
Master composer, musician, and pioneering vocalist Toby Twining, famous for his stunning choral masterwork in just intonation, the "Chrysalid Requiem", will be one of the featured workshop leaders. This is an unprecedented opportunity for musicians interested in issues of microtonality and tuning to learn from one of the most visible masters in the field today.
There will be workshops, theory and performance opportunities, community and professional connection experiences, and most of all, soaking up the beauty of the surroundings to inspire the creation of beautiful music!
Towards a Xenharmonic Praxis
Through a series of historical accidents, Western society’s music—instruments, history, theory, practice, pedagogy, consciousness—has come to be dominated by a single tuning system, often called “twelve tone equal temperament.” This dominance is so pervasive that it is often completely invisible. Students of music who wonder “Why these notes on the piano, and not some others?” are all too often answered with “Those are the only correct notes—anything else is out of tune!”
A world of more satisfying answers to this question unfolds to those looking for it: millennia-old traditions of music tuned differently; surprising inquiries & insights into how we hear; proposals for new systems yet untried. This camp is for those who want to dream up and realize new, thoughtfully-tuned music and contexts which support it.
We use the term xenharmonic after microtonal pioneer Ivor Darreg, to refer to these unfamiliar-yet-hospitable musical terrains.
We use the term praxis after radical educator Paolo Freire, to refer to an ongoing dialectic between theory and practice, between action and reflection, each process informing and completing the other.
We envision a Xenharmonic Praxis Summer Camp where musicians from a variety of backgrounds converge and suspend the need for “one true answer” for long enough to get deep into a new, unpopular proposal; where distinct roles of audience, composer, theorist, performer, designer are inhabited temporarily, not reserved for experts or assumed as an identity.
Activities
Small Ensembles Everyone is both a composer for, and versatile performer in, their small ensemble. Daily rehearsals of each composer’s piece; each new day is a chance to try out a revision, an addition, a new rehearsal technique…by the end of camp, we will have a concert of new music!
Singing Spirals The practice of singing just intonation chords, in progressions that expose small but crucial differences (commas).
Self-Similar Tuning Theory On paper and in sound, we will play with two fractal structures extremely useful in building and understanding a variety of musical scales: the Scale Tree (a.k.a. the Stern-Brocot Tree) and the (Sub-)Harmonic Series.
The Scalesmith Microtonal scale design as art form. Share your favorite scales and scale-building methods. Design lab for musical instruments and educational multimedia projects.
Odd Mic A forum for sharing new ideas and compositions with the group. In a world where speaking, too, is an action, we search for desirable ways to speak about our music and our desires.
Archive Building Deciding what is worth saving, and saving it. (Audio recording equipment potluck.)
Downtime impromptu jams around the fire, listening sessions, nature walks, etc.
Who is eligible to attend?
All self-described musicians with an interest in alternative tuning systems are encouraged to attend, from curious beginners to seasoned veterans. Ability to read Western music notation is helpful but not necessary; an open mind, however, is mandatory. We recommend that you have at least three years’ experience of a musical practice before attending.
Which instruments, tunings, notation?
The camp will be focused on making live performances on acoustic instruments and voice. It is recommended that you choose a primary instrument for the duration of the camp (which may involve electronics). You are also encoraged to bring any extra (microtonally-capable) instruments for an ad hoc communal instrument library.
The emphasis will be on realizing tuning paradigms which depart radically from the possibilities of 12-tone equal temperament, including extended Just Intonation, empirical tunings, and equal divisions of the (non)octave.
Cents (1200-EDO) and Sagittal notation will be used in some workshops; however, any and all notations that participants find useful are welcome!
Fees
The total fee to participate in Xenharmonic Praxis Summer Camp 2011 is $800. A $200 deposit will secure your spot. A total of 35 spots are available; registration will remain open until all spots are filled. The fee includes room, board, and tuition. We have a limited number of scholarships for those who demonstrate considerable financial need.
Applying
To apply, fill out the online application form.
Facilities
The Gesundheit! Institute is a project in holistic medical care based on the belief that one cannot separate the health of the individual from the health of the family, the community, the world, and the health care system itself. Gesundheit! owns 320 acres of mountain land in West Virginia, the future site for a free, silly hospital which will serve one of the poorest areas in the U.S. and act as a global model for health care delivery.
Each year, hundreds from around the world participate in volunteer and education programs on the land. This summer, thanks to the generous commitment of the Gesundheit community, Xenharmonic Praxis Summer Camp will be among these programs. With our presence, we have a chance to draw new connections between the practice of microtonality and the practice of health care.
We will use the existing Art Center and the new Teaching Center for classes and rehearsals. With more than two miles of established trails, a three-acre lake, two waterfalls, numerous springs, small and vast meadows and many acres of forest, opportunities for site-specific creation are ample. Participants will sleep in communal yurts and shared bedrooms, or may camp out on the land. Meals are covered in the fee; food preparation and tidying tasks will be shared between participants and Gesundheit! volunteers.
Instructors
Jacob Barton (woodwinds, pedagogy) is a composer and multi-instrumentalist whose work focuses on acoustic microtonal practice and theory. Jacob studied composition at Rice University, where he received a BMI Student Composer Award for composing Xenharmonic Variations on a Theme by Mozart. Not content with lonely electronic piano sounds, Jacob retuned two pianos at Rice and curated a global call for microtonal scores, resulting in the Seventeen Tone Piano Project concert series. After attending School for Designing a Society in 2005, Jacob co-invented the udderbot (a slide woodwind instrument) and began experimenting with composing in the domain of everyday life actions. Jacob co-founded Oddmusic-UC, a microtonal teaching space and musical instrument library in Urbana, Illinois. He has offered workshops in microtonal singing and udderbot making in Urbana, Houston, Cincinnati, Boston, Baltimore, New York, London, and hometown Virginia Beach.
Andrew Heathwaite (plucked strings, xenharmonic theory) is an experimental human and songwriter whose songs reflect a passion for mythology, geometry, constraints, and living with intention. For example, in 2008, Andrew followed the Discordian & K’iche’-Mayan Sacred calendars and wrote an epic poem per day, setting several of them for voice and cumbus in 17-EDO. As co-founder of Oddmusic-UC, Andrew has hosted guitar re-fretting workshops, radio shows, a microtonal composition study group, and other atypical happenings. He is a member of the School for Designing a Society performing ensemble, as well as music-and-puppetry collective An Exciting Event.
Composer Elizabeth Adams (orchestration, scoremaking) studied English and Music at Barnard, Composition at SUNY Stony Brook, and Music Theater at the Hochschule der Künste, Bern, where her teachers were John McGuire, Daria Semegen, and George Aperghis and Xavier Dayer, respectively. In New York City, she and the Orfeo Duo co-founded the Garden Performance Project, a community-garden-based workshop of recycling, instrument-building, composition and performance; and Songlines, a collaborative mapping of neighborhoods in song. She frequently participates at the School For Designing A Society so that she can concentrate in company on connecting composition and social change. A doctoral candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center, Elizabeth composes primarily for chamber ensembles of acoustic and newly-invented instruments. Since 2006 she has been adding theatrical elements to her compositions. Her aim is to render the unfamiliar more accessible by using visual and dramatic cues to suggest multiple hearings of a piece. Her work often critiques or models social dynamics and exchanges of power. She looks at every neighbor as a potential critic, composer, and performer of our musical, ecological, and social environments.
Ryan Stickney (voice), with a Bachelor’s in voice from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, is currently a master’s student in Contemporary Improvisation at the New England Conservatory. Learning about and performing xenharmonic music has been a special interest since participating in the 17-Tone Piano Project at Rice, and she has studied non-12 systems with Jacob Barton at prior xenharmonic summer events, as well as with Julia Werntz at the conservatory.
New York-based composer and recording artist Toby Twining (guest lecturer, extended vocal techniques and composition) has received critical acclaim for music that brings together a new choral sound with hi-resolution/microtonal harmonies and innovative instrumental techniques. His ensemble, Toby Twining Music, has recorded three CDs: Shaman (BMG Classics, 1993), Chrysalid Requiem (Cantaloupe Music, 2002), and the brand new Eurydice (Cantaloupe Music, 2011). Eurydice was originally composed for The Wilma Theater’s production of the play, Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl, directed by Blanka Zizka. The ensemble also accompanied Garrison Keillor in the award-winning Little Match Girl on A Prairie Home Companion’s 20th Anniversary Album (Highbridge, 1994). Twining’s instrumental works have been recorded by the avant-garde pianist Margaret Leng Tan—Satie Blues and Nightmare Rag (The Art of Toy Piano: Uni/Point, 1997), and An American in Buenos Aires (Mode Records, 2010)—and cellist Matt Haimovitz—9:11 Blues (Anthem, Oxingale/Artemis 2002).
Partners
OddMusic Urbana-Champaign, a working group of the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, is interested in sharing the awareness, the tools, and the passion needed for people to make awesome xenharmonic music. We have offered workshops in instrument building and modification, a Microtonal Theory Study Group in Urbana. We have a growing library of odd musical instruments, which include prototype keyboards built by Aaron Hunt; 22-EDO, JI, and nonoctave retrofrets by Andrew Heathwaite; Denny Genovese’s Lambdoma Starrboards; the Udderbot Marching Choir; and a recording studio equipped with Li’l Miss Scale Oven. We invite you to join us in Urbana as we design and build community oddmusic projects year-round; for people with long-term commitments elsewhere, we offer this Summer Camp as a temporary solution. For more information, visit http://oddmusicuc.wordpress.com
UnTwelve is a Midwest-based not-for-profit dedicated to exploring the current and historical frontiers of music beyond the 12-note tuning system. We have made it our mission and vision to commission and perform musical works which display the excitement and beauty available to those who venture into this new territory, both for audiences and musicians. For more information, visit http://untwelve.org
The School for Designing a Society, established in 1991, is a project of teachers, performers, artists, and activists. It is an ongoing experiment in making temporary living environments where the question “What would I consider a desirable society?” is given serious playful thoughtful discussion, and taken as an input to creative projects. For more information, visit http://designingasociety.net