Sarah Claman

Sarah Claman (b.1989), a violinist, originally from New Zealand, focuses on improvisation as a means of sparking dialogue and opening up the lines of communication between people. Her main tool is her naturalistic approach to violin technique, focusing on how the body and the effect of gravity upon it produce sound at the instrument.

She graduated with a MusB(Hons) in 2011 from the University of Otago (Dunedin, NZ) and went on to study at Dartington College of Arts (UK), the ESMuC (ES), and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (NL).

https://sarahclaman.wordpress.com/

Sarah’s Reflection

It's been a pleasure to work on this piece as it's really struck a chord with me. As an improviser and music creator myself, I love the fact that it's so open and that I've been able to mold it to my own specifications, so to speak.

The contact with I-lly has been really helpful, but it's also been good for me to have the liberty to work on the piece on my own. The score is really clear, the instructions, the reflections, the questionnaire, and the actual score part. I haven't had any problems deciphering it (apart from the problems that were necessary to get through the creative process).

I love the fun nature of the questionnaire and I've enjoyed the whole process of gathering samples, finding and writing texts, and also finding and writing melodies. It's been a real challenge to get the pronunciation right, but I also want to think that my mispronunciation of the words ties in with the theme of the piece.

I decided to gather samples from my everyday life, recording long samples around the home, out for walks on the street, and in different public spaces. Only after the fact listens back to the material I had recorded to find the sounds that I really liked or that really bothered me, not affected or influenced by the smells or the sights, for example.

As a technical note, because my mouth is so close to where the sound projects from the violin, I decided to record both the violin and voice as one track. This is a conscious choice that I made based on the fact that I enjoy this aspect of my instrument - the ability to speak/sing and play at the same time, and I wanted to capture this in the recording. I wanted the voice to melt in with the violin, and accept the possibility of losing some of the clarity in the voice as another aspect of the piece. In a live setting, I would also like the samples to come out of speakers placed as close to the violin/mouth as possible to have everything blend together. I want to get this across in the final mix/master of the recording.

I think this piece achieves it's the goal of questioning the relationship between performer and composer, especially the role and tasks of the performer. I have most definitely taken part in the composition process, but only in part. It's a true collaboration. As was I-lly's intention, it also draws attention to cultural differences and barriers, even culture shock. This is an issue that I have very close to my heart, I've been able to magnify it much more than what I would have been able to in a classical composer-performer relationship.

Thank-you again I-lly for inviting me to collaborate on this project!

真的很開心能參與這個令我深深共鳴的計劃。身為即興演奏家和音樂創作者，我喜歡這個開放且能讓我塑造個人特質的作品。

與伊里的溝通對我而言非常有幫助，但同時我也擁有自己的發揮空間。樂譜的指示十分詳盡，從計畫介紹、過往回饋、問卷以及樂譜內容，讓人完全沒問題地解讀(除了創作中必經的過程問題)。

我喜歡問卷內這些尋找周遭聲音、文字和旋律的過程。對我而言，正確的發音中文是極富挑戰性的，然而我也思考著不正確的發音，正符合這作品的核心—個體獨特性。

我決定去收集我的日常的聲響，收錄家中的聲音，出門採集街上以及不同公共空間之聲響。再來回播錄音去尋找喜愛以及厭惡的聲響素材，單從聽覺感受篩選，而不受嗅覺或視覺的影響。

在錄音技術上，由於我的嘴巴是非常接近小提琴的發聲位置，我決定將人聲以及樂器聲響錄製成同軌。這個有意識的決定是源於我享受這種說與演奏同時發生的狀態，並且希望於錄音時也是如此呈現。我希望人聲與小提琴聲響是融合在一起的，並且接受會因此失去一些發音清晰度。在現場表演狀態時，我也會希望環境聲響(電聲)部分是靠近小提琴與說話的發聲位置，讓所有的素材是融合在一起。

我認為這首作品完全回應了作曲家與表演者之關係探討，特別對於表演者的角色和任務。在此計畫讓我必然參與了作曲的過程，然而伊里在此計畫意圖不僅於此，同時也包含不同文化的界線與衝擊，對我而言這是非常貼近我的靈魂，比起古典作曲/演奏的關係，我在這當中獲得更大的共鳴。感謝伊里邀請我參與這個計畫！

Video edition by Sebastian Vidal

Program Note

Yours Mine has been an adventure for me. The first time I worked on this piece, I remember some of the samples that I went out to record. The sound of my room-mate saying a cheery "Hello!" and the laughter of my friends having a drink at a busy bar. That was in 2018.

From that experience to this new experience in 2020 with Yours Mine, my life has changed completely. I moved countries (from one place far away from home, to another place far away from home), and became a mother. Although the phrase, "Become a mother" doesn't even being to describe this transformative experience.

Skipping straight to the present day and my work on Yours Mine, my daughter is already more than a year old and strikingly present in my everyday sound world, pretty much 24/7. That's what you can hear in this piece. In fact, she's present in all the samples, even if she's not heard. When the truck brakes screech or there are roadworks out on our street, there she is in her stroller. When the neighbours cackle late at night, she's out on the balcony, listening, unable to sleep. She utters syllables and screams with delight, you can hear her toys rattling around.

The piece has become a sonic snapshot of my current reality. This includes a fun sample where there's a mass of people in the street. If you listen carefully, you can hear someone talking about the pandemic (pandemia) in Catalan. I wanted to include this sample not only because of the reference to Covid-19 but because of the irony of the large group of people gathered on the street. They are speaking in Catalan, one of the three languages in my day-to-day reality and the odd one out because I don't speak it at home, only in public life.

Having lived in two countries where the language is different from my own, I find the task of choosing the words put forth by I-lly really fun and relatable. Language is a difficult barrier to break and I've been in many a situation where I've had to decipher what's going on around me, making mistakes that result in bizarre misunderstandings or even just silence, mine or theirs.

I ended up writing the first melody myself. The instruction was to write what I most enjoyed playing on the violin and what occurred to me is that at this moment in my life, what I had most enjoyed playing to date were my own improvisations, my own material. I decided to stay true to that and write a short melody myself to reflect this sentiment. The second melody, however, asks for a favourite from childhood and I decided to use the same melody from the first time I tried out the piece in 2018. Some things stay the same. This second melody links nicely with samples of my daughter chatting while playing, a fun connection between her own and my own childhoods.

The second text is written in baby language, at least, my daughter's specific baby language. I'm not sure how baby language sounds in Taiwan, for example. Is it just the same, or does it vary? Anyway. This is a text in baby language, by a baby whose first languages are Spanish and English. Again, it marries well with the sound sample at this point in the text, where I always feel like I'm having a conversation with my daughter as I recite it.

The first text, however, is somehow much more personal, even though I didn't write it. I found it in a book written by my grandmother. It's a very long story and if anyone wants to know the details, they can approach me. If not, I want to leave it at this, it's a long, personal story.

This piece has taught me a lot, has forced me to reflect and think in a way that wouldn't have occurred to me on my own, and so I thank I-lly for inviting me to collaborate on this project with her. I love the sentiment and theme of the piece, it's been a pleasure to work on.