fourteen times in touch
introduction
Fourteen Times In Touch is a text based score references Karlheinz Stockhausen’s INTENSITÄT from Aus den Sieben Tagen, where warmth is the end point of the action. While Stockhausen asks the musician to feel warmth, it is the warmth of the universe. Thus it could be read to asks the musician to feel their body as being inscribed on by its exterior. Following this line of thought the traditional view of the ground and the image switch places, and the body becomes the immovable landscape where figures appear and disappear. Following this further I argue that musical instrument present a special case where action can be turned into motion and fed back through sound as much as touch, to the musician.
practice diary
In The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Music Andrew Kania defines music as being recognizable as such when it is heard, he says that ‘[m]uch of the time most of us can tell whether, and which of, the sounds we are currently hearing are music.’21 He argues that music must have basic musical features or be listened to in a way as to hear those features. In the definition of music he presents ‘sound’ has been replaced by ‘anything intended to be heard’.3 This line of reasoning about the airborn material of sound unavailable to other senses but hearing is in contradistinction Hermann L. F. Helmholtz who argues that ‘the sensation of a musical tone is due to a rapid periodical motion of the sonorous body; the sensation of a noise to non-periodic motions.’272 Being more in line with Roger Scruton who argues that Music makes use of a particular kind of sound: the acousmatic event, which is heard ‘apart from’ the everyday physical world, and recognized as the instance of a type. This isolation of the pure sound event leads to a peculiar experience, which I have called the experience of tone.28 This means that while ‘[m]usic is the art of sound’, in Scrutons terms, ‘music is itself a special kind of sound, and not any art of sound is music.’29 And that ‘[o]bjects do not have sounds […] they emit sound.’30 Kania specifically targets hearing as the source of music, while Helmholtz describes the motion of an object, which can be touched in various phases of its existence.
In their book Choreo-Graphic Figures Nikolaus Gansterer, Emma Cocker, and Mariella Greil discuss their ‘practices of attention’ that ‘perform a vital role within [their] artistic research process, creating the germinal conditions for experimental aesthetic enquiry.’ These ‘preparatory’ techniques are aimed at enabling an ‘increased alertness, vigilance and receptivity, in turn augmenting (heightening, deepening, widening) and nuancing (sharpening, refining) […] individual and collective sensitivities to the vitality dynamics and affects within […] live explorations.’ In my work I have developed these preparatory techniques into a method which I have called skin-listening and it is possible to see a deep resemblance between what is termed live explorations and what I have termed building and making instruments. Skin-listening aims not only at heightening attention but I argue it correlates with hearing, and thinking of it as a type of listening is beneficial in order to understand what it means to think in touch.3
Paying attention to touch is vital to musical performance where a single wrong stroke can at worst brake the authenticity and magic of a performance. Therefore gathering the senses and getting in touch with the performing body and the instruments to be used in any performance is of vital importance. In paying attention to touch, touch itself is passive and it is the moving gesture and the intention behind that gesture that controls where and what is touched and what are the effects of that touch. In music these touches are called expressions and articulations and they result in sounds.
Paying attention in touch on the other hand is visually static and not based on a movement or gesture that passively feels as the skin moves across a surface. When the attention is brought into the body and into the skin one first notices that touch does not stop when movement stops. The continuous feeling of touch is vital to understanding my arguments of thinking in touch. What brings about this type of attention is to stay with the touch and listen to the dialogue between touch’s body of senses. Saying still and not moving the moving attention of the mind becomes apparent. It is mobile and can either stay in one place in the skin, it can move between two different places on the skin, it can move between paying attention to different sensations of touch in a single spot on the skin, or between many spots and their different sensations. I will contest that with practice it is possible to pay attention to all the skin at once.
1 Andrew Kania, ‘Definition’, in The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Music, eds. Theodore Gracyk and Andrew Kania (London: Routledge, 2011), 3–13, pp.3., pp.12, pp.6.
2 Hermann L. F. Helmholtz, On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music, trans. by Alexander J. Ellis (New York: Dover, 1954), p.8.
3 Nikolaus Gansterer, Emma Cocker, and Mariella Greil Choreo-Graphic Figures: Deviations from the Line (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017), pp. 134.
In their book Choreo-Graphic Figures Nikolaus Gansterer, Emma Cocker, and Mariella Greil discuss their ‘practices of attention’ that ‘perform a vital role within [their] artistic research process, creating the germinal conditions for experimental aesthetic enquiry.’ These ‘preparatory’ techniques are aimed at enabling an ‘increased alertness, vigilance and receptivity, in turn augmenting (heightening, deepening, widening) and nuancing (sharpening, refining) […] individual and collective sensitivities to the vitality dynamics and affects within […] live explorations.’ In my work I have developed these preparatory techniques into a method which I have called skin-listening and it is possible to see a deep resemblance between what is termed live explorations and what I have termed building and making instruments. Skin-listening aims not only at heightening attention but I argue it correlates with hearing, and thinking of it as a type of listening is beneficial in order to understand what it means to think in touch.3
Paying attention to touch is vital to musical performance where a single wrong stroke can at worst brake the authenticity and magic of a performance. Therefore gathering the senses and getting in touch with the performing body and the instruments to be used in any performance is of vital importance. In paying attention to touch, touch itself is passive and it is the moving gesture and the intention behind that gesture that controls where and what is touched and what are the effects of that touch. In music these touches are called expressions and articulations and they result in sounds.
Paying attention in touch on the other hand is visually static and not based on a movement or gesture that passively feels as the skin moves across a surface. When the attention is brought into the body and into the skin one first notices that touch does not stop when movement stops. The continuous feeling of touch is vital to understanding my arguments of thinking in touch. What brings about this type of attention is to stay with the touch and listen to the dialogue between touch’s body of senses. Saying still and not moving the moving attention of the mind becomes apparent. It is mobile and can either stay in one place in the skin, it can move between two different places on the skin, it can move between paying attention to different sensations of touch in a single spot on the skin, or between many spots and their different sensations. I will contest that with practice it is possible to pay attention to all the skin at once.
1 Andrew Kania, ‘Definition’, in The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Music, eds. Theodore Gracyk and Andrew Kania (London: Routledge, 2011), 3–13, pp.3., pp.12, pp.6.
2 Hermann L. F. Helmholtz, On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music, trans. by Alexander J. Ellis (New York: Dover, 1954), p.8.
3 Nikolaus Gansterer, Emma Cocker, and Mariella Greil Choreo-Graphic Figures: Deviations from the Line (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017), pp. 134.
score
1.
Relax, breath steadily but do not concentrate on it, don’t close your eyes. Slowly start feeling the ttip of your toes on both legs, and move up your shins, legs, sides, arms, hands, shoulders neck, temples and top of the head, then come down through the face, the chest and back, buttocks, thighs, calves, soles of your feet back to the tip of your your toes.
2.
Repeat this with your eyes closed.
3.
Relax, breath steadily and do not close your eyes. Feel the points of skin that are touching different materials. Feel the weight of the body, feel the contact of skin, of a nail, of your trousers, or shirt, how does it effect it.
4.
Repeat but categorize the touches and compare different touches: weight, sharpness, roundness, hardness, softness, temperature, transfer of heat, size of area, texture.
5.
Touch a material, wait until you recognize that material, feel its hardness, weight, texture, its edges, and temperature, then touch another material. Do this with all the parts and all the skin of the body.
6.
Touch one material, wait until you recognize that, feel the weight of your body, feel your skin heating that material,
7.
Touch two different materials and do the same.
8.
Touch three different materials and do the same.
9.
How many materials can you touch and recognize at the same time?
10.
Touch a material and stay in the touch. Feel the minute and subtle changes in the touch that lasts until contact is cut.
11.
Touch a material and stay in the touch for while until you feel what it is, then think about touching the rest of your body with that material.
13.
Hit something so that the hand bounces of the object and listen to the sound resonating in the space, once it stops, hit it again so that the hand remains on the object and feel the touch as it changes, finally hit something and remain touching only until the resonating echo of the space stops.
14.
Stop what you are doing and close your eyes. Start by feeling the surface of the keyboard with both of your hands. Concentrate on the heat differences between the padded zones in your hands. Always simultaneously, start pushing that heat towards the top of the feet, what in shoes is called the vamp. As you push follow the heat as it builds up your arms and stops at your biceps. Curl your toes so that their nails are pressed by your weight against the floor. Starting from your elbows feel the whole of your back up to your ears and continue to feel your armpits and insides of the arms then chest and let the heat fall towards your crotch and fill out the rest of your legs. Let the tongue take up spit and feel its heat move towards the tip of your tongue then feel the top of your mouth. From the top of your ears the heat drifts up and over the top of the head. There let the feeling touch itself and dissipate back to the top of the eyelids. Open your eyes and feel the moisture in your eyeballs.
Conclusion
This piece interrogates how the skin can start listening by focusing on the relationship and differences between touch and sound.1 The piece takes on a self-reflective form and asks the musician to touch themselves as sounding material as well as to touch other materials while focusing on their touch, what it sounds like, and how long it takes to feel something compared to how long the sound takes. In it I develop a concept of touch listening and the touch resonance. Thus by focusing on listening, time, and ordering of touch in different ways, and listening to the resulting sound, the body learns to measure and think in touch. This piece draws on the work of Sonic Independence and other works which de-habituate touch to suggest a pedagogy of touch which isn't primarily aimed at children. Some of these methods, like the Carabo-Cone Method, which is specifically described as a sensory-motor method for learning music, explicitly uses touch through games and environments. Abigail McHugh-Grifa, in her The Use of Touch to Facilitate Learning in Music Education identifies seven functions of touching between teacher and child, which she argues are important in learning music. These are ‘1) to develop positive relationships, 2) to gain a child’s attention, 3) to direct a child, 4) to develop audition, 5) to model musical behaviour, 6) to elicit musical response, and 7) to raise body awareness.’2 Therefore touch should be seen as a valuable tool in music education in general and for all levels of competence.
The written score I have made uses instructions for development and study of the skin and touch and build on the body, not as a percussive instrument, but an instrument of touch. This distinction being important. What is especially important is the sound and touch that happens after first contact, resonance of the body is not like that of sound, which decays, but of its own kind, and it continues as long as the skin touches the surface. The piece aims at developing the capacity to focus on the changing atmospheres within that touch and to re-learn and learn to play with the skin as a location where touch happens and where touch can be made to happen, and to listen and feel how these relate to sound and its resonance.
1 In terms of senses this piece is a subcategory in the sense of touch and interrogates how the skin can become a musical instrument.
2 Abigail McHugh-Grifa, ‘The Use of Physical Touch to Facilitate Learning in Music Education’, Visions of Research in Music Education, 18 (2011).
The written score I have made uses instructions for development and study of the skin and touch and build on the body, not as a percussive instrument, but an instrument of touch. This distinction being important. What is especially important is the sound and touch that happens after first contact, resonance of the body is not like that of sound, which decays, but of its own kind, and it continues as long as the skin touches the surface. The piece aims at developing the capacity to focus on the changing atmospheres within that touch and to re-learn and learn to play with the skin as a location where touch happens and where touch can be made to happen, and to listen and feel how these relate to sound and its resonance.
1 In terms of senses this piece is a subcategory in the sense of touch and interrogates how the skin can become a musical instrument.
2 Abigail McHugh-Grifa, ‘The Use of Physical Touch to Facilitate Learning in Music Education’, Visions of Research in Music Education, 18 (2011).
references
[5]In terms of senses this piece is a subcategory in the sense of touch and interrogates how the skin can become a musical instrument.
14 Abigail McHugh-Grifa, ‘The Use of Physical Touch to Facilitate Learning in Music Education’, Visions of Research in Music Education, 18 (2011).
14 Abigail McHugh-Grifa, ‘The Use of Physical Touch to Facilitate Learning in Music Education’, Visions of Research in Music Education, 18 (2011).
