about orfeo 5
green fuse 2003
texts from 2002

Improvising with music and words with orfeo 5

Explore ways of bringing words and music together through improvisation, leading to a performance. The process is open to anyone with an interest in text-music, writers or musicians, beginners or experienced, anyone interested in working across the 2 art forms. Each participant contributes to the creation of a collaborative text-music piece, made with the group, and the resulting work is then presented in performance prior to an orfeo 5 concert. The process can be as long as a month or as short as a day, depending on requirements. A typical single day workshop might go like this:

10.00 workshop begins 1 - 2pm lunch break (shorter if people are keen) workshop to end by 4.00pm, to produce a short piece (15 - 20 minutes). We try to work around people’s energy levels, but the starting time must be no later than 10am, to make sure everything fits into the day. Most of the morning session will be devoted to the creation of a group text, with a chance to thrash around a bit musically before lunch, to try out various approaches to integrating the text with music. The afternoon session will be given over entirely to devising the performance, with the aim of finishing a first version by around 3.15pm, so as to allow time for rehearsal and refinement. It’s quite a high-pressure process, but it does work, basically improvising with text and music to reach a form we like in time for the end of the workshop. All participants will be involved at all stages: any musicians must help to create the text, and any writers must help to create the music.

Musicians should, of course, bring their own instruments and, if they play electric instruments, their own amplification, (there is a PA for the duration of the workshop for the voices). Please note, the process it is NOT about songwriting, but is a collaborative process derived from improvised music and jazz, more about text in performance than the creation of songs (though singing is not disallowed!).