gruntCount (bass clarinet Edition): blurring the piece, system, instrument distinction

Martin Parker’s gruntCount is a multi-version, configurable composition for improvising musician (or musicians) and computer. Performers embark on a journey through sound processing modules that are specifically customised to individual playing styles. It exists in no fixed state, yet allows for a growing set of rehearsable, replicable and configurable pieces, in which all musical material, timing, overall duration and levels of effort are managed by the live musician. In order to optimise elements of flow and of liveness in each performance, gruntCount challenges traditional definitions of ‘piece’, ‘system’ and ‘instrument’, instead establishing an environment for human-machine improvisation that serves the musical result and not the system itself. This paper refers to a selection of sound examples from the bass clarinet edition (2012-14) and examines formal time-shaping possibilities within a structured performance, while exploring the environment’s qualities of coaction and configurability in an era of new score types.