Kitten Postcard Project is the collaborative work of three former scholarship holders at the Milton Keynes Music Service: artist Lucinda Chua, composer Nicholas Worrall and violinist Noura Sanatian.
The project takes its namesake from a ‘90s comedy sketch in which British stand-up Stewart Lee analyses a postcard of a cat and a dog playing the piano, debating the merits and skill of free jazz and improvised music. Encompassing performance, video, musical transcripts, musical composition and photography, Kitten Postcard maps the creative process of piecing together a duet for violin and piano from the starting point of a musical improvisation.
The completed duet will debut at the Kitten Postcard Project exhibition launch in a performance by current students at the Milton Keynes Music Service.
Reworked Violin Improvisation,
Video Installation, 2012
Improvised Violin Solo - Noura Sanatian
Structured Piano Accompaniment - Lucinda Chua
Lucinda: I feel my ears are definitely routed in melody, I find it very difficult breaking away from that, or even breaking away from what the next note will sound like. Is that something you think about when you improvise or is it just instinctive?
Noura: There are so many different from of improvisation, there's creating just sounds and noise, some people like to have some harmonic element in there, others really don't. To say that you're not going to draw on your influences or how you've been trained is just... I can't do it, I can't ignore it, I definitely like delving in melody but sometimes as an exercise I like to get away from that to see where that will take me...
Reworked Violin Improvisation,
Video Installation, 2012
Improvised Violin Solo - Noura Sanatian
Structured Piano Accompaniment - Lucinda Chua
Lucinda: I feel my ears are definitely routed in melody, I find it very difficult breaking away from that, or even breaking away from what the next note will sound like. Is that something you think about when you improvise or is it just instinctive?
Noura: There are so many different from of improvisation, there's creating just sounds and noise, some people like to have some harmonic element in there, others really don't. To say that you're not going to draw on your influences or how you've been trained is just... I can't do it, I can't ignore it, I definitely like delving in melody but sometimes as an exercise I like to get away from that to see where that will take me...
Re-worked Violin Improvisation,
Video Installation, 2012
Improvised Violin Solo - Noura Sanatian
Structured Piano Accompaniment - Lucinda Chua
Lucinda: I feel my ears are definitely routed in melody, I find it very difficult breaking away from that, or even breaking away from what the next note will sound like. Is that something you think about when you improvise or is it just instinctive?
Noura: There are so many different from of improvisation, there's creating just sounds and noise, some people like to have some harmonic element in there, others really don't. To say that you're not going to draw on your influences or how you've been trained is just... I can't do it, I can't ignore it, I definitely like delving in melody but sometimes as an exercise I like to get away from that to see where that will take me...
Reworked Violin Improvisation Transcript Excerpt,
Ink on Manuscript, 2012
Transcribed by Nicholas Worrall
Improvised Violin Solo - Noura Sanatian
Structured Piano Accompaniment - Lucinda Chua
Playing Together there, Adjusting Accordingly
Duet for Violin & Piano by Nicholas Worrall
Performers are invited to re-examine excerpts from the Reworked Violin Improvisation transcript. By limiting material and prescribing structure, this piece becomes something with all the hallmarks of composition rather than improvisation whereby the performer may alter only dynamics, tempo and repetition, taking an alternative approach to improvisation.