Introducing one of his songs, the comedian Steven Wright once said: "This song doesn't go something like this; it goes exactly like this."
That joke more or less sums up my attitude toward performance.
Considering the performance of a piece of music the image of a more ideal reality seems to me both erroneous and redundant. The meaning of music arises from a distant source, which is by definition unknown and can only be named with that ancient divine title: Muse. The only transcendental of music is the Muse – or in other words, there is no Composition.
A composition is nothing more than a configuration in which sounds are assigned to points in time. This is the act of composing. There is no such thing as a real idea underlying a composition. The idea, if ever present, arises only after the practice.
A performance takes place in time and articulates single points in time. The other art form concerned with articulating points in time is quite adequately called 'performance art'.
If there be such a thing as the Muse of performance art, it must be the muse of the single gesture. If music is the creation of a place through the sounding articulation of points in time, I would conjecture that the Muse of music, bears – or has borne – the Muse of performance art. To avoid confusion, let’s say that theirs is a common muse.
Performance art operates by the subtraction of the sounding aspect of music, and the absolute reduction to the singular. Music, on the other hand, operates by the grace of the single gesture. The meaning of this gesture as gesture is revealed in performance art. In music, gesture constantly becomes sounding.
Every single moment in a performance, be it musical or in performance art, is shaped by the fulfillment of a technical, practical demand, or task. Performers (those who perform these tasks) reside in the experiential logic, or meaning, that is revealed by playing the music; a musical score, which is like a letter from composer to performer. Writing such a letter is composition. What results is a place – in the case of music sounding (and listening), in the case of ‘performance’, demonstrating (and puzzling). And only in this place, there is the possibility or promise of an idea to emerge (or, perhaps, descend).
With every performance, we must say: this song goes exactly like this and reject any ideal goal or object – affirm the actuality of art and leave place for something to happen.
Amsterdam, i '10
