Soundpaiting

Soundpainting as a system for the
collaborative creation of music in
performance

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in the
Department of Music
School for the Arts
Faculty of Humanities
University of Pretoria
by Marc Duby

Supervisors: Professor Caroline van Niekerk
Professor Allan Munro
October 2006

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The man bentover his guitar,
A shearsman of sorts. The day was green.
They said, ‘You have a blue guitar,
You do not play things as they are.’
The man replied, ‘Things as they are
Are changed upon the blue guitar.’
And they said then, ‘But play, you must,
A tune beyond us, yet ourselves,
A tune upon the blue guitar
Of things exactly as they are.’
Wallace Stevens, “The Man with the Blue Guitar”iii

Table of contents
Acknowledgements .................................................................................... viii
Dedication ..................................................................................................... ix
Summary ....................................................................................................... xiKeywords...................................................................................................... xii
Notes to the reader ...................................................................................... xii
Chapter 1 : Research outline .................................................................... 1-1
1.1Introduction......................................................................................... 1-1
1.2 Background and justification............................................................... 1-2
1.3 Research questions............................................................................ 1-3
1.4 Purpose and aims .............................................................................. 1-5
1.5Justification......................................................................................... 1-6
1.5.1 A note on musicking..................................................................... 1-6
1.5.2 Creation, mediation, and reception .............................................. 1-7
1.5.3 The role of the conductor in orchestral performance ................. 1-11
1.5.4 Free jazz as ensemble performance.......................................... 1-151.5.5 The role of the Soundpainter in ensemble performance ............ 1-17
1.5.6 The Soundpainter as ensemble director .................................... 1-20
1.6 Chapter divisions .............................................................................. 1-22
1.7 Methodology ..................................................................................... 1-24
1.7.1 Survey ofscholarship................................................................. 1-25
1.7.2 Theoretical frameworks.............................................................. 1-26
1.7.3 Theories of improvisation ........................................................... 1-28
1.7.4 Group improvisation as a collaborative process ........................ 1-31
1.8 Relevance of this study.................................................................... 1-33
1.9 Scope and limits ............................................................................... 1-34
1.10 Glossary ......................................................................................... 1-37

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Chapter 2 : Music as sign-system—a survey of scholarship ................ 2-1
2.1 Introduction: Semiotics andlinguistic theory....................................... 2-1
2.1.1 Saussure’s concept of language as a sign-system ...................... 2-4
2.1.2 Peirce’s typology of signs ............................................................ 2-8
2.1.2.1 Icon ................................................................................................................... 2-10
2.1.2.2 Index...