Performing the Scratch Orchestra's Nature Study Notes: creating and exploring a third sphere through improvised communal action.

Hails, John

Abstract

In June 2014, a disparate group of trained and untrained performers gathered together at the Chisenhale Dance Space to perform items from the Scratch Orchestra’s 1969 Nature Study Notes. The performance was not a nostalgic recreation of past practice, but was something new, growing from the practice of the group itself, and one which posed an interesting balance between individual and communal responsibilities and participations, indicative of a powerful engagement with contemporary and relevant practices that activate and negotiate individual and communal concepts of identity. This paper explores how we might theorise such an arena, situating this performance somewhere between community music and a manifestation of avant-garde art.

Citation

Hails, J. (2014). Performing the Scratch Orchestra's Nature Study Notes: creating and exploring a third sphere through improvised communal action

• Conference Name: Music and shared imaginaries: nationalisms, communities, and choral singing
• Conference Location: Aveiro, Portugal
• Start Date: Oct 30, 2014
• End Date: Nov 1, 2014
• Publication Date: 2014
• Deposit Date: Mar 6, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 6, 2015
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 203-210
• ISBN: 978-989-8714-41-1
• Keywords: Identity; community; improvisation; ritual
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/id/eprint/7657