Part 2: Perform with Langham Research Centre // Play – Christian Wolff (1968)

This virtual workshop – hosted via Zoom – focuses on ‘Play‘, a text score by the American experimental composer Christian Wolff, part of the ‘Prose Pieces’ collection composed in 1968. It consists of two workshops, this is Workshop 2.

In this second session, participants will work towards one or more group performances, having prepared ideas about how we each might perform. Any instruments and sound producing means – including the voice – can be used, but it should be noted that the last line of the score reads, “At some point or throughout use electricity.”

Wolff was associated with the so-called New York School of composers, centred around John Cage in the 1950s. They were described as composers who were “getting rid of the glue”: they weren’t interested in conventional musical continuity, composing instead in a way that created musical situations where “sounds would be themselves” rather than having a structural relationship to other sounds.

This workshop is suitable for beginners, and those without conventional musical experience. You’ll need a computer and headphones or speakers along with sound producing devices that could include conventional instruments, your voice, electronic devices, objects, etc.

If you have any questions regarding suitability for this workshop or if the price is a barrier to your ability to attend, please get in touch with sophie@nonclassical.co.uk