BURST! - Creating a new personal language developing consistency between improvisation and composition

This Master research revolves around how I can compose repertoire for a specific ensemble, developing a new and personal language of composition that involves collective improvisation. My goal is to include, in each composition, written sections and improvised sections, exploring the contrast between the two. I think of improvisation as the only means able to guarantee absolute musical spontaneity, placing the musicians in a condition of absolute immersion in the flow of events. With composition, on the other hand, it is much easier to exercise greater control on the music and to achieve very high degrees of precision. The chosen ensemble consists of trombone, guitar, percussion, and piano, with each instrument selected based on its ability to contribute to the desired musical language which delves into the exploration of different musical characteristics such as homorhythm, polyrhythm, power and large sound masses as well as musical contrast and surprise. I began by undergoing a process of exploring the ensemble which led to discovering and experimenting with interesting techniques and ways of communicating between instruments. This allowed me to gather compositional ideas that I used as building blocks for the pieces of the repertoire. Owing to time constraints, I chose to focus my research mainly on the first piece of the repertoire, Tephra, showing audio and video recordings of the ensemble’s rehearsals, delving into the different phases of the experimentation of the language as well as different methods to approach collective guided improvisation.