From instability to invention

my process of recreating A rose is a rose by Diana McIntosh

Abstract

Research Question

Drawing from my practice as a performer-researcher, this paper narrates my process of re-creating A rose is a rose (2006) for piano and digital delay by Canadian composer Diana McIntosh. When accessing her archive to prepare a tribute concert, I encountered a heavily revised manuscript featuring annotations in different colours, crossed-out passages, and other sections missing. The score appeared here as the record of a creative process that remained open. In addition, little is known about the specific digital delay device she used in her performances. On the other hand, there are several recordings made by the composer herself, notably the one on her album Pinnacles (McIntosh, 2012). Between this unstable manuscript and the different recordings, a central question emerges: where does the identity of the work reside? In this context, this research seeks to investigate how the identity of A rose is a rose is configured based on the existing materials and my creative choices.

Objectives

The main objective is to understand how the manuscript and McIntosh's recordings, considered together, feed my creative agency in the re-creation of A rose is a rose. Inspired by notions of distributed creativity (Clarke & Doffman, 2017) and the idea that performance is an act of world-making (Nogueira, 2016), always grounded in my concrete practice and experimentation. I propose a dialogue with the traces left by the composer, where I become a creative mediator. This includes a collaboration with composer Henry Ng to develop a new patch in MAX (A rose is a rose 1.1), which updates the work's technological layer without losing sight of its original spirit.

Main contributions

Dialoguing with studies on recorded performance (Leech-Wilkinson, 2009), I understand McIntosh's recordings not as models to be copied, but as traces of the composer-performer’s modus operandi of a composer-performer. My study of the manuscript and the sonic experimentation with the new patch highlighted the instability of the very idea of a "work." In this sense, I align with the discussions of Cook (2006, 2013) and Zampronha (2000) regarding the status of the musical work, but from a concrete situation where gaps had to be filled for a performance to take place. In this context, the performer's agency is not supplementary; it becomes structural. This condition mirrors the practices of electroacoustic composer-performers described by Bosma (2006) and Gioti (2021), in which creation, technique, and performance are intertwined.

Implications

This work suggests that A rose is a rose can be understood as an ecosystem, where the score functions as a catalyst for the performer's creative process (Zampronha, 2000). In this new ecology, notation, recording, and live performance feed into one another. This reinforces the creative agency of the performer-researcher, as an agent who explicitly assumes their creative responsibility.

Keywords

creative processes, performer agency, artistic research, distributed creativity, Diana McIntosh

 Link

https://youtu.be/ruQfhEyF58M?si=j-lLquukMIoXvNpA&t=6