遇見Vijay Iyer
by bibby c. (Sept. 9, 2002)
這學期在紐約大學Tisch School of Art的表演藝術系旁聽了一堂和即興音樂有關的課 (課程大綱打列如下，可參考)，它有著標準學院式的沈長名稱，叫做"Situated Sounds, Embodied Actions: 21st-Century Perspectives on Improvisational Music"。
而和音樂系不同的，這門課主要關懷的主題並非是創作及音樂的本身，而是建構出即興音樂的社會環境及文化元素。簡單地說，整學期的課堂中將看不到任何的採譜分析、樂理結構及創作理論，而著重的主題將會是歷史的、跨文化的、社會建構的、政治力、美學的、批判的、種族的、文本化的音樂分析。質言之，這不是微觀的，而是鉅觀的音樂學。
而授課教授Vijay Iyer的背景則和她的名字一樣奇特。她只比我大了6歲，同樣是屬於1970s出生的這一代，或者說就是被西方新聞媒体貼上X-Generation的這一個族群。而特別的是，她並非是念音樂系出身的，而是理工及科學，她1992年在耶魯大學拿到數學和物理雙學位，並隨後在加大柏克萊分校拿到物理博士學位。但這並不影響她對音樂的熱情，反而促使她做跨界的嚐試。九零年代中期，她和幾位同樣對聲音、錄音技術、認知心理學、電腦科學、音樂學以及即興技術有興趣的教授及研究生，在柏克萊成立了一個名叫Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT)的研究單位。
而另一方面，Vijay Iyer也是一名鋼琴手暨作曲家，至今並曾發行過四張在紐約時報、村聲、All Music Guide以及All About Jazz等知名媒体上廣獲好評的秀異專輯，分別是: Your Life Flashes (2002), Panoptic Modes (2001), Architextures (1998), Memorophilia (1995)。
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[附錄: Syllabus]
SITUATED SOUNDS, EMBODIED ACTIONS:
21st-CENTURY PERSPECTIVES ON IMPROVISATIONAL MUSIC
Dept. of Performance Studies,
Tisch School of Art,
New York University
Instructor: Vijay Iyer
In this course, we work towards developing a sophisticated critical discourse to apply to contemporary improvisational music. We listen closely to music on recordings and in performance, taking advantage of our privileged New York location. We examine various music worlds -- current and recent; local and transnational; music collectives, scenes, microgenres, subcultures -- and we strive to situate them historically, socially, and politically in terms of their antecedents and points of reference. We work critically through available texts of all forms, including writings in cultural theory and ethnomusicology, mainstream journalistic writing, musicians' discourse, 'zines and chatrooms. We employ careful introspection about our own broad and diverse musical experiences, be they as listeners, consumers, deejays, dancers, musicians, composers, or improvisors. Using these various strategies, we initiate sustained, thoughtful, critical engagement with the vast diversity of improvisational music, recognizing it as a site for the complex interplay of issues in aesthetics, politics, place, identity, ethnicity, memory, and embodiment.
Required books:
* Jacques Attali, Noise: The Political Economy of Music. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992 [1985].
* Graham Lock, Blutopia. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999.
Strongly recommended for further reading (most are on reserve):
* Art Taylor, Notes and Tones: Musician-to-musician interviews.
* Amiri Baraka [LeRoi Jones]. Blues People.
* Ingrid Monson, Saying Something: Jazz improvisation and interaction.
* John Szwed, Space is the Place
* Farah Jasmine Griffin, If You Can’t Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday.
* Mark Slobin, Subcultural Sounds: Micromusics of the West.
* A. B. Spellman. Four Lives in the Bebop Business.
* Robert Walser, ed., Keeping Time: Readings in Jazz History.
* Eric Porter, What is This Thing Called Jazz?
* Robert O’Meally, ed., The Jazz Cadence of American Culture.
* Sherrie Tucker, Swing Shift: “All-Girl” bands of the 1940s.
* George Lipsitz, Dangerous Crossroads: Popular Music, Postmodernism, and the Poetics of Place.
Reading assignments for Fall 2002:
9/10/02 On Improvisation & On Representation:
9/17/02 Embodiment & Situating Music and meaning:
9/24/02 Histories of jazz:
10/1/02 Women in jazz:
10/8/02 Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman:
10/15/02 Cecil Taylor:
10/22/02 Sun Ra, Horace Tapscott / UGMAA:
10/29/02 AACM:
11/5/02 BAG, CBA, M-Base, AIR:
11/12/02 Anthony Braxton, European improvisors, John Zorn & NYC Downtwon Scene:
11/19/02 Neoconservatism, Neoecstaticism, Internationalism & Popular culture:
11/26/02 Technology & Attali's concept of composition (in "Noise")
12/3/02 Student presentations
12/10/02 Student Presentations continued
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