With Artistic Clout

Johnson, Colin

About the work

With Artistic Clout is one of several pieces (including Ye Olde, Dark, Romantic and Mysterious Tale of King Harald the Twelfth and his… (1994) and A strathspey and reel for the rave generation (1998)) that I have written in recent years which are for a flexible ensemble capable of incorporating any number of players of any instruments. Such a method of composition is more friendly to amateur groups than traditional orchestral and chamber music which requires specific instrumentation. Using these techniques players of different abilities can play alongside one another from the same part, contributing as little or as much to the music as desired, which sits comfortably with an ideal of music as conviviality. The title is the fault of Howard Jones, who during a meeting a few months ago talked about the need to get ‘some people with artistic clout’ behind a project. The music is entirely my own fault.

First Performance: CoMA London+South, May 1998, , workshop at Oxford Contemporary Music Festival

Technical notes

The piece consists of a number of themes which are chopped up and recombined in various ways as the piece progresses, the basic material being some piano improvisations that I performed in 1996, errors made in attempting to write down those improvisations, and riffs stolen from early 1990’s dance music.

Origin

Call for Pieces Entry: The State of the Nation 1998

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