Peter Tornquist
Peter Tornquist graduated from the Norwegian Academy of Music in spring 2007 with the project "Improvisation - Interaction - Composition: exploring feedback-systems as a compositional model".
Improvisation and composition are described as representing two complementary attitudes towards musical creativity, or as equivalent phenomena in two distinct artistic domains. This ambiguity led to the statement of three main goals:
- To research models that describe the interaction between improvisers and composers
- To develop techniques for the creative exploration of this interaction
- To apply this knowledge to artistic co-operations, resulting in musical works
On the smallest level, the project dealt with the extraction of musical data from improvised material and the use of this data in generative compositional systems. In a wider perspective, however, it stretched into broader issues of production and perception of art.
Thornquist has chosen some models from digital signal processing (DSP) as metaphors for the artistic process. The concept of feedback is particularly interesting, as it neatly describes the cyclic development achieved by sending musical ideas back and forth between a composer and an improviser.
The project is influenced by his musical back ground in computer-assisted algorithmic composition. This, largely score-based aesthetic, is part of the much wider field of Computer Music, which also includes disciplines related to interaction with performers. This places composition and improvisation on level ground.
The final appraisal
To appraise the artistic research, the following appraisal committee was appointed:
- Professor Ole Lützow-Horn, the University of Gothenburg
- Professor Erik Kaltoft, the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music, Odense
- Professor Olav Anton Thomessen, the Norwegian Academy of Music
Contact Peter Tornquist on e-mail: peter.tornquist@nmh.no