Third City 2017: Improvisational Roles in Performances Using Live Sampling

Abstract

The 2017 set by the electroacoustic duo Third City comprised five pieces, each defined by an audio path linking different acoustic musical instruments to digital musical instruments to enable live sampling. Performances were then improvised within structures developed in rehearsal. The authors here ask how the different instruments and audio paths influenced the improvisational roles taken by the performers. Previously established differences between acoustic musical instruments and digital musical instruments are highlighted, and questions regarding their use within improvisation are articulated. A taxonomy of improvisational roles is then selected and applied to the pieces. In identifying correlations between the instruments and audio paths of the five pieces and the improvisational roles used by the performers, conclusions are reached to serve as guidance in the setting up of audio paths for other electroacoustic improvisation pieces using live sampling. This article is the result of research into practice, an asynchronous post hoc consideration (Onsman and Burke 210) of the 2017 Third City set carried out by the duo having repositioned themselves relative to their music-making selves as researchers referring to both the experience of performers and the projected experience of the audience as inferred from archive footage.