Opposite to what one might expect, it is not at all self-evident that musicians and composers engage in a dialogue about the piece they write and perform. On the contrary, it has always been very unusual for them to do so. This, however, is changing: more and more the idea of collaborative creation is taking hold.

This film shows an example of how this change is coming about. It was filmed during the “Musicians Meet Composers I-Lab”, from 29-31 October 2007 at the Walter Maas Huis, a co-production of Insomnio and the WMH. In this lab fourteen musicians and eight composers worked in changing combinations on new pieces of music, meanwhile reflecting on the collaboration, communication and division of roles between musicians and composers. Four external observers reflected on the creative process.

Stefan Metz, the well-known cello player of the Orlando Quartet and founder of the Dutch String Quartet Academy, gives a masterclass to the promising Matangi Quartet at the Walter Maas Huis in Bilthoven. Metz takes the players and the listeners into the string quartet by Bartok, and discusses his ideas about artistry; he shows us what it means to go from playing really well to excellent performance.

Bert Mulder, information expert and adviser to the Dutch government, speaks about the fundamental transition our society is currently going through; as the ‘society of meaning’ is coming into being, the role of culture and art is also changing.  Many people seem to experience a gap at the heart of our modern world, and they go looking for new meanings; very often art and artists represent the site where these new meanings are found.  The experience of art can teach us something: the way personal inspiration goes together with everyday practice and work.  There is a need to further deepen the dialogue between the arts and business, to define more clearly what exactly is the art of the new professional.  Such Connecting Conversations are what Art in Conversation is about.  [Movie in Dutch]

“We simply begin by improvising,” says Helena Gaunt.  Whenever they meet, in any setting, Helena Gaunt and Bart van Rosmalen simply start by playing.  You cannot theorise beforehand, because there is nothing yet to theorise on.  The situation in improvisation is that you know that you don’t know; there is no time and there are no criteria for deciding whether something is good or bad.  You have to postpone your judgement. Bart van Rosmalen: “And you need that for the creative situation; you have to take intuitive decisions.” Exercising improvisation helps you to develop this ability of postponing the judgement.  Like Miles Davis said: “Play it first , and tell what it is later.”

How does one exercise improvisation?  Helena Gaunt and Bart van Rosmalen have developed a way of beginning they call the Stravinsky exercise: start playing using only a few notes, a single pattern, and the methods of variation. Bart van Rosmalen: “It is like meeting someone saying: ‘Hi how are you, where do you come from?’ It is musical chitchat.” The result is becoming more aware of your influence on any communicative situation.  It opens up the possibilities for conversation to happen.

On September 5, 2007 Helena Gaunt and Bart van Rosmalen collaborated with painter Liselot Schut in an improvisation in image and sound.  This post shows excerpts from the film that was made out of this collaboration, and Bart van Rosmalen sharing his thoughts on this kind of interdisciplinary improvisation.  He noted, for example, certain similarities in the way a musician and a painter move, using a pencil, a bow , or their breath.  There is also the symbolic language of the image that can inspire playing music.  All in all, this kind of improvisation opens up a realm where one can express levels of emotion which are not generally accessed through everyday conversation.

Bart van Rosmalen talks about how the collaboration with Helena Gaunt has changed his perspective on improvisation.  He has a lot of experience improvising: “I used to think I was a completely free player.” But then Helena introduced him to the concept of ‘sitting not knowing’: really not knowing what you’re going to do, simply sitting there and waiting for the creative act to happen.  “That was a real eye-opener for me.” Freedom is not something that has a life of its own.  There are always boundaries within which one can exercise freedom.  The challenge is to find these boundaries and to look at what is behind them.

Helena Gaunt and Bart van Rosmalen, the initiators of the project Art in conversation, explain where the initial idea for the project came from.  At a conference on music education they felt something was missing: there was a lot of talk going on about music, but music itself somehow was not there.  That’s when they said: we should play together as well, instead of just talk.  We should try and meet musically. And so they did.

From this initial meeting onwards they started investigating the similarities and differences between improvisation and conversation. What can we learn from improvisation that we can use in conversation?  And since our conversations are increasingly between people from different disciplines (music, art, business, science, philosophy), we can also ask what art can contribute to the quest for more innovative ways of talking.  Because conversation, in the end of the day, is an improvised form.