The Dialectics of Authorship and Interpretation: Composing for Improvisation and Improvising for Composition

This artistic research project investigates the interpenetration of composition and improvisation in my creative practice, examined through the theoretical frameworks of authorship and interpretation. This was documented in the evolving nature of my performance practice in composition-improvisation, field recording, studio recording and mixing, collaborative composition, rehearsals, live performance, and extended techniques developed on the saxophone throughout the course of this project. This research focuses on my positionality, practice, knowledge, and the influence of social and aesthetic dynamics in my music-making, while exploring new understandings of authorship and interpretation as the mediation of socio-aesthetic production in composition-improvisation.