A Bayley

Ethnographic Research into Contemporary String Quartet Rehearsal

Within the tradition of western classical music, research into rehearsal processes often focuses on the pivotal relationship between notation and performance. In this article, analysis of an audio recording of the Kreutzer Quartets single rehearsal of Michael Finnissys Second String Quartet in 2007 provides the starting point for exploring interactive and communicative processes between the composer and the performers along the path from notation to performance. Quantitative and qualitative approaches to rehearsal analysis are used, drawing also on theories and methodologies from ethnomusicology and psychology, as well as ideas from linguistics, in order to discover how the ensemble explores and resolves ‘management’ questions posed by contemporary repertoire, how rehearsal processes might be modelled for a potential audience of both scholars and performers, and how collaborative relationships function in practice.

Creative layers and continuities: A case study of Nicole Lizée and the Kronos Quartet

This study examines the creative layers and continuities evident within the composition and rehearsal processes of Nicole Lizée’s Golden Age of the Radiophonic Workshop (Fibre-Optic Flowers), written for the Kronos Quartet in 2012. Lizée’s compositional approach to the historic and the new, and the mechanical and the human, are interpreted through Simon Emmerson’s three themes of combination, transformation, and control, and his three “impulses within composition” that combine live and acousmatic soundworlds – integration, antithesis, and co-existence. These concepts also help to articulate the way the players engage with the physical, psychological, and expressive demands of the piece. Discussions arising from the Kronos Quartet rehearsing the piece with the composer reveal how extensions are made to the performers’ mind and body experiences when they are required both to initiate and integrate sounds emanating from unfamiliar, analogue machines into their acoustic, yet amplified soundworld. Creative layers and continuities are seen to evolve from compositional experimentation and from composer–performer and co-performer dialogues in rehearsal in the BBC Maida Vale studio prior to the world premiere at a BBC Prom concert on 24 July 2012.