Doctoral Colloquium (music) | Stuart Jackson

This research project seeks to show how the Historically Informed Performance movement (HIP) has produced ideas that are relevant to the performance of electroacoustic music. Using Cartridge Music (1960) by John Cage as a case study, I will show how many aspects of HIP such as the use of obsolete technologies (instruments), research on performance practice in early realizations, and historical/cultural context can be used to produce a simultaneously informed and radically new realization of the score.  Cartridge Music is graphic and text-based score which is defined by an electronic set-up which the performer must find sound sources for. Sounds must be amplified with phonograph cartridges and contact microphones, and altered with minimal processing: volume changes, tone changes, and repetitive patterns like tape loops. The ambiguity surrounding all these sonic modulations leave open the possibility for managing all this processing using recent technology such as computer software, but I believe that the challenge of using older devices, like a tape machine for example, offers possibilities for exploration not possible with digital resources. Cage’s instructions are deliberately cryptic, making research necessary. Creating a realization using ideas from HIP requires direct experimentation with devices like tape machines and phonograph cartridges, as well as research on how the piece was originally interpreted, and the context in which it was created.