This piece is inspired by something called ‘signifying’, which is a rhetorical device used in African-American music, particularly in sampling in hip-hop. Signifying is essentially three things:

1) taking something that exists, could be a word or musical idea, and responding to it or repurposing it
2) the tension that exists between that new idea and the original one
3) a way of subverting power structures through language

I’ve taken snippets from Mozart’s overture to ‘Clemenza di Tito’ and I’ve signified on them by treating them like samples in Hip-Hop; I've developed them and given them new harmonic and rhythmic properties. I've also tried to make those ideas sound like other composers in the canon, thus it becomes a way of communicating through a shared cultural memory, just like hip hop does when it takes samples from Black America's musical past (e.g. soul/funk samples).

Signification on Mozart’s overture to ‘Clemenza di Tito’, for orchestra

Piano reduction of a string trip I'm working on

String Trio Piano Reduction

In contemporary classical musical culture, there seems to be a clear distinction between its secular and spiritual expressions, whereas in Afro-diasporic music, the distinction appears far more fluid. With this in mind, I have designed a piece that uses gospel singers to bring the strings from a secularised place - where decisions are rationalised and largely directed by the composer – to a more spiritualised place, where players are more reliant on their intuition and on their interactions with each other and the singers.

'The Separating Line' for gospel singers and string orchestra (excerpts)

Separating Line REMIX 2.2

This piece explores the potential for the signifying act to re-frame improvisation and interaction within a classical framework. It ‘signifies’ on the musical ideas from Bartok, Stravinsky and Webern, repurposing and recontextualising them as tools for musical interaction. The ideas become timbrally, rhythmically and harmonically distinct and form a new sonic whole that exists in tension with the original(s). 


Signification ii for violin duo

Signification_for_orchestra_new_mix

This is a concert version of a piece I wrote in 2011 for an art installation based on dreams. It uses memory and rhetoric much in the way dreams do; making a composite of different thoughts, associations and emotions to form a surreal whole.

Reverie For Solo Violin (revised)

Trio for flute, clarinet and piano

Continuo for violin and piano

A collaboration with artist Gina Southgate. I wrote the piece specifically to be responded to by an visual artist. The piece uses chance materials, so no two performances are the same. The artwork in the image is Gina's response to the piece.

Response I for Flute, Bass Clarinet and Viola

Piece I wrote a while back, played by Lydia Lallement.

Blasio Kavuma

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