Reunion

This is a 3-minute sample of the game played between Marcel Duchamp and Georges Koltanowski in Paris in 1929. The full length was 46:07.

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Notes by William Blakeney:

In 2018, before what would have been the 50th anniversary of the original performance, Joel Chadabe, Donald Gilies and I decided that since the cat was already out of the bag, we would try to lift the pall that hung over the original event and come up with our own joyful realization of the piece.

We booked into the original suite of the Windsor Arms Hotel, where the final game had finished, with a custom-made chessboard of our own. While there is a valid argument that without the wonderful board created by Lowell Cross, we could never have a completely “authentic” performance, we employed a vintage board with a reproduction of one of Duchamp’s 1911 Ebony/Boxwood chess sets. We also employed a bottle of Château Kirwan that was located in the warehouse of the LCBO on Cooper Street.

We moved forward. A computer-based tactile controller called the “LinnStrument” was set up by Roger Linn, specifically for the purposes of entering the moves on the board. For the contributing compositions, we were inspired by the famous “Dragon Slayer” poster created by Gary Viskupic at the University of Illinois in 1969. The poster features a cartoon of John Cage as a dragon slayer, wielding an axe in front of a hydra of notable classical composers.

Here is the way we worked with a computer: Proceeding through a pantheon of composers from A to Z, we created a collection of deconstructed classical works representing the 64 possible spaces on a chessboard, as well as a “castle” position for both the white and black pieces. In total, the database of digital compositions encompassed a sound for every space on the board. When a white piece took a black piece or vise versa, a new unique composition would play.

Each position on the board had its own designated composer and there was no duplication. In total, there were 130 original loops employed in the performance.

As with the original performance, when a chess piece was taken off the board, or when a different coloured piece claimed its position, the sample would be muted but continue playing. If the square was retaken, the composition would resume playing as though a mute had been removed.

These generally unrecognizable compositions were realized with acoustic and electronic instruments and designed to form 10-minute loops that would play for the duration of the game.

Joel and Donald played a number of games that generated remarkably different musical architectures. For this recording, we attempted to recreate three classic games by Marcel Duchamp: Duchamp v. Eduard Glass (1933), Duchamp v. George Koltanowski (1929), and Duchamp v. Leon Szwarcman (1929).

The first thing that will become apparent to the listener is the fact that experienced chess players will typically generate a similar offensive or defensive opening pattern that expands as the game goes on. As an example, Duchamp often employed a Nimzo Indian opening which would naturally result in a certain emerging musical score.

— William Blakeney

Credits:

The performances of Reunion by Donald Gillies and Joel Chadabe were recorded at the Windsor Arms Hotel in Toronto, Ontario, in the spring of 2017. The digital realization was assembled by Amy King and mixed by Bob Doidge at Grant Avenue Studio in Hamilton, Ontario, in the spring and summer of 2018. Electronic Realizations by William Blakeney utilizing IRCAM Solo Orchestral Instruments and the UVI Falcon Digital Synthesizer. Produced by William Blakeney and Joel Chadabe. Transportation by George Boski.

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For other compositions, click on a title

Blues Mix 1966
Albany Music 3 1966
Jack in January 1967
Street Scene 1967

Drift 1970
Ideas of Movement at Bolton Landing 1971
Echoes 1972

From The 14th On 1973

Flowers 1975
Settings for Spirituals 1977

Solo 1978
Scenes from Stevens 1979
Follow Me Softly 1984

After Some Songs 1995
Spring Drum with Pierre’s Words 1997

Many Times … 2001
One World 1 2006
Micro Fictions 2009
Different Cities 2013