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COLLABORATIVE COMPOSITION IN A HYPERLOCAL ENVIRONMENT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2022

Abstract

This article explores ways in which compositional methods can respond to and articulate the specificity of localness, interrogating ideas of place, identity, collaboration and the local through an examination of the methods used by professional Birmingham composers to open out aspects of their compositional approach to the wider community. I share my findings from for-Wards, an ambitious public music project: an artistic collaboration between myself, ten professional Birmingham composers, nine music organisations and residents from Birmingham to create a musical ode to the city. Non-conventional compositional approaches became instrumental in the development of this innovative project, documenting the experience of the local within an ambitious citywide collaboration. The article considers the for-Wards project's background, notions of the hyperlocal, the artistic team, ideas relating to authorship, the compositional framework and collaborative challenges. The article considers the collaborative compositional methods employed by the for-Wards composers to examine the local, including local histories and their playful variants, field recordings, environmental vocalisations and the visualisation of the local.

Type
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

1 Lippard, Lucy R., The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society (New York: New Press, 1997)Google Scholar.

2 The number of wards was subsequently expanded to 69 following a boundary review in 2018.

3 Damian Radcliffe, Here and Now: UK Hyperlocal Media Today (2012), www.nesta.org.uk/publications/here-and-now-uk-hyperlocal-media-today (accessed 8 November 2021).

4 Radcliffe, Here and Now, p. 6.

5 Metzgar, Emily T., Kurpius, David and Rowley, Karen M. (2011), ‘Defining Hyperlocal Media: Proposing a Framework for Discussion’, New Media and Society, 13, no. 5, p. 774CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Radcliffe, Here and Now, p. 9.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid., p. 8.

9 Ken Johnson, ‘ART IN REVIEW; John Baldessari’, New York Times, 11 December 1998, https://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/11/arts/art-in-review-john-baldessari.html.

10 https://karenmclean.co.uk/work/sweet-ethics (accessed 12 November 2021).

11 Email conversation with Sam Owen, Pram band member, June 2017.

12 Misson, S. (2017) Birmingham Manufactures: Chad Valley. Available at: https://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/blog/posts/birmingham-manufactures-chad-valley (accessed: 01 August 2021).

13 Theresa Sauer, Notations 21 (New York: Mark Batty Publisher, 2009).