‘Developing Live-interactive Approaches to New Music for Organ and Electronics Through Collaboration’

In this article, I argue for a shift of focus from mechanical/technological and sonic approaches to music for organ and electronics towards the role of the organist as a performing musician in the collaborative development of new work. To do so, I address the roles and limitations of technologies in performance, taking an embodied approach to understanding and critiquing the work of the organist in the context of my collaboration with Alistair Zaldua (live electronics). I consider the practical solutions we have devised to allow performance in diverse spaces with diverse instruments as a hybrid instrumental practice, considering this an affordance rather than a problem to be solved. I offer three case studies: the preparation of an historical work for organ and electronics (Mesias Maiguashca, Nemos Orgel, 1971–1990); the realisation of the same concert in 5 contrasting spaces (orgel, orgel, orgel, orgel, orgel, 2021); and a collaboration focused on our performance practice (Annette Schmucki, 54 stops, 2020). By examining the development of live-interactive approaches through collaboration I seek to show what this hybrid practice offers for the realisation of this music, and what it means for the consideration of the performing experience of the organist