Un Separate
Composition
Musical Score for Network-Connected Guitar Ensemble
‘Un Separate’ is a musical concept sketch for an improvisational electric guitar ensemble scattered throughout Limerick city centre. The piece was conceived during lockdown in April 2020 while trying to imagine ways which Limerick could experience live music once again, in a time where concerts have become an impossibility. Performers are located in various venues throughout the city centre, and though they are far apart and cannot hear each other, the improvisational structures they perform within are synchronised by timed visual cues to be delivered to each performer’s phone or personal device via network. A limited, safe number of audience members are permitted into each performance venue at any time. Inspired by drone music, the music of Glenn Branca and free improvisation, the piece has a palindromic structure, beginning sparsely with only the root note permitted. With each sebsequent phase of the piece, the piece grows in density as more notes are gradually added (the note additions are informed by the harmonic series). The piece peaks at Phase 7 before gradually stepping back through the phases to Phase 1. This piece shows a desire to imagine new kinds of musical experiences, after years of the working in the traditional recorded pop song format. The piece is as yet unperformed.