CHICAGO 2022
As the premise for my end-of-year devising project at Columbia College Chicago, I chose to devise a movement piece using absolute music (an instrumental work not associated with a text or narrative) as the source material. I studied the work of Jonny Greenwood, focusing on his approach to composition and his instrumental techniques for evoking physical, sensory responses.
Greenwood's Horror Vacui is an extensive piece for solo violin and 68 strings, with patterns that shift, magnify and evolve in a series of stages. I used the score as a "storyboard" for an abstract narrative using light, shadow and materials to develop visual motifs in a movement score.
Devised and performed by Geoffrey Schön in collaboration with Ambria Campbell, Jessie Ellis, Maddy Gagliardi-Grabau, Taia Koker, Ines Manuel, Miranda Starke and Carlie Thompson.
All images © 2022 Geoffrey Schön
