Brian Kane -- neither super-idealized guidance nor caprice (2006)
 
This is a semi-improvised work for small ensemble and live electronics, conducted by stopwatch. Each instrumentalist in the ensemble is given an ever-shrinking set of sounds, and must follow very specific instructions about co-ordination with the other members of the ensemble. Creating a complicated network of embedded relations, every sound made by an instrumentalist has the potential to be interpreted as a cue for one of the other players in the ensemble without the instrumentalist knowing what kind of cue he or she may be giving. The goal is twofold: to force the players (and the audience) to pay attention to the beginnings and endings of sounds – aspects which are not often the most perspicuous – bringing them into audibility, and thus critiquing our habitual modes of listening. To complicate matters, a blanket of electronically processed sounds is overlaid on the ensemble, providing resistance and forcing the process of listening into a tenuous state of double attentiveness. The relation between the electronics and the ensemble is ripe for an allegorical interpretation.

A note on the title: In the context of David Pears’ book The False Prison the phrase “either super-idealized guidance or caprice” refers to Wittgenstein’s rule-following paradox. I leave it to the listener to glean what it means in this context.