Jack Callahan and Jeff Witscher: Stockhausen Syndrome

Abstract

gins in a thumb piano improvisation by Durrant. Initially, Cundy had collaborated remotely with Durrant during the United Kingdom’s first Covid lockdown in 2020. This track also demonstrates Cundy’s approach to compositional reworking, resulting in what Cundy calls “a map or an abstraction of a remote landscape in which contour lines and place names have been taken away.” In this case, the thumb piano sound class has been completely masked, rendering the source unrecognizable. “First Attempt” (track 3) begins with the breath, producing a convincing starting point. Here, Cundy produces static textures similar to the ones heard in “Circular Attempt.” But this track demonstrates a more obvious use of flute and clarinet timbres, in contrast to other highlighted breath sounds. One hears a slow counterpoint between the individual sustaining lines as well, suggesting a process of stretching material horizontally. Compositional techniques like these could be characterized as Cundy’s attempts to expose the listener to varying perspectives and positions of a given sound mass. The final track, “Undoing,” suggests a collapse of one’s sound materials, demonstrating a way Cundy reflects on the previous pieces heard in this set. I also consider this track as a way that the composer galvanizes Crude Attempt. The same compositional devices heard in the previous tracks have been used, except in this track, Cundy manages to form an emergent other voice, which slowly projects outward. Ultimately, I view this track as another example of Cundy reworking his materials, leading him to develop yet another approach to shaping his sound materials. Cundy has discussed with me his stance on the issue of reworking material. He mentioned that, overall, he is “interested in how an artistic practice absorbs a language of sounds, accumulates vocabularies from various places, and how the individual sets about reworking these disparate strands in the present.” For Cundy, an example of this way of working stems from his experience recording “Mountains” (1977) for solo bass clarinet and magnetic tape by Dutch composer Ton de Leeuw. While recording this work, Cundy realized de Leeuw’s approach to working with North Indian traditional music without reproducing imitations of this tradition. Another influence related to Cundy’s developing vocabulary in Crude Attempt is the classic text New Sounds for Woodwind (originally published in 1967), written by Bruno Bartolozzi. This book served as a way to assist woodwind instrumentalists in order to adapt their microtonal playing when performing with the developing electronic sounds of the time—allowing electronic source material to perhaps affect musical decisions of conventional acoustic instrumentalists. This concept, wherein electronics influence one’s performance, is evidenced in Cundy’s home-studio approach. In a broader sense, one could view Cundy’s compositional approach as similar to Natalie Jeremijenko’s view of design, as well. She views all making as remaking, due to its generative and re-generative nature. For example, in Crude Attempt, Cundy successfully adapts aspects of his physical environment and his instruments (conventional and electronic), suggesting a self-reflexive process. As Cundy engages with his own work, he continues to integrate concepts of others, as well as reevaluate aspects of his previous practices. It is in the results of this process of critical evaluation that Cundy has formed his own distinctive sonic practice in Crude Attempt.