The 12 - David Gorton

Some Discourse of Musique

In this presentation David Gorton will present a composition project that reimagines music from the past. Drawing on sources from the long seventeenth century, this project represents a mode of working that sees the composition of new pieces in which raw musical materials are borrowed, recycled, and repurposed. In other words, compositional interventions are made to historical source materials to the extent that they become something else. There are two reasons for doing this. First, to develop a critical and discursive commentary on this repertoire in a manner that is neither historical nor analytical but is instead a personal exploration of some of the music from that time. Second, to develop a compositional aesthetic of the uncanny, where the familiar is presented in a manner that is unfamiliar.

David Gorton is a composer and artist-researcher. A winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society composition prize, he has…