Composing inspired by repertoire

Pedagogical goal

Exploring the student's own instrument to discover new ways of playing and to try out composing using extended playing techniques.
Actively listening to contemporary music.

• Listen to 'Guero' by Helmut Lachenmann.

• Try to guess the instrumentation, make observations about the piece.

• Watch Lachenmann's own performance (YouTube video).

• Have students think about and explore unusual sounds that they can find in their own instruments, individually or by instrument group.

• Imitate the playing techniques of instruments on other instruments. (This can also be done during instrument lessons, in collaboration with instrument teachers.)

• Compile images, shapes, graphic figures or descriptions of these extended sounds on paper.

Option 1:
• Organise sounds in the time dimension on paper: which sound begins the piece, how many of them are there, how long do they last and in which register are they (if that can be determined), and how broad or narrow the texture band is.

• You may divide up assignments by instrument group and add details to sections of the piece by specifying dynamics, articulations, characters and tempos.

• Have the students notate the sounds graphically and with mixed techniques if necessary: traditional notation, verbal descriptions, icons, etc. Students may also develop symbols of their own to stand for the sounds invented.

Option 2:
• Create a story or a set of small stories (= multiple movements) around the sounds.

• For instance, consider in which mood the piece should begin, what should happen then, where the culmination should be and how the piece should end.

• Draw a representation of the piece on paper using mixed techniques..

• Make a graphically notated score of the piece, then perform it and specify its details.

• Present the work of the small groups to the whole group.

• Compile the fragments and perform the piece or sound improvisation.

• Later, you may look at the score of Lachenmann's 'Guero'.