games
game music
As an experiment I asked my friend, Jared Bennett, to compose a game piece in order to contrast the
other pieces, their spontaneous and childish characters and musical approach. This piece is very
informal, and although the result might sound highly inappropriate in a concert venue (such as
Wigmore Hall), I am more concerned about the unexpected and playful performance aspect of the
piece. In Jared’s words:
'This piece is an examination of the ways that the tiniest elements of a preexisting
piece can create the foundation for new works. Alterations to whatever original work is chosen
by the performer are decided by drawing cards, and the gameness of this procedure allows the process
of creation to be fun and spontaneous rather than strict. The end result consists of a layered skeleton
of the original constructed with sometimes slight, sometimes drastic changes to the original, as well as
the performer’s mistakes. This process encourages a freedom in interpretation/re-interpretation of the
original pieces, and a chance for players to take themselves less seriously in the process.
For this piece I am including separate audio recordings showing the process of the game and
overdubbing of recordings.'
GAME RULES:
1. Choose a piece: Mozart’s Turkish March
2. Record a section of the piece as the base
3. Draw a black* and a white card from group 1*: ‘only play...’ ‘notes in the a minor arpeggio’
4. Draw a black and a white card from group 1: ‘only play...’ ‘notes in the c major arpeggio’
5. Draw a black and a white card from group 2*: ‘only play...’ ‘black notes’
6. Draw a red card*: ‘whenever a C is played, play a ff cluster chord as low as possible in the left hand’
7. Final result without the base
*Black cards: ‘play only’, “play everything except’
Card group 1: tonic, subdominant, dominant and relative key of the piece’s harmony – notes in the
arpeggio or notes in the scale
Card group 2: card non-related to harmony, such as ‘black notes’ ‘crotchets’ left hand’ ‘anything
louder than f ‘
Red card: special cards, such as ‘play a ff cluster in the base every time you have a C in the music’ or
‘read the music upside down’
