Since scanning all the available versions of #[unassigned] that I could find in my room, and converting all the files I had on my laptop, I now have a virtually complete archive of the piece (screenshot as evidence). I’ve been thinking through what to do with it, and am considering making the piece available once again in some form. I released a few of the pieces in their original format for performance through the assigned series a couple of years ago, but after a recent correspondence with Johnny Chang (who played the final versions of #[unassigned]) I am exploring making the piece work in a kit form once again. I spent a considerable amount of time trying to make this work from 2005-9 but to no avail, but in the meantime my views on form and identity have opened up somewhat so there might be some new solutions to explore. The idea would be to provide materials which allow others to make new versions of #[unassigned] without my direct input. Not managing to find a way to do this was one of the reasons I stopped making the piece in 2009, so it may be a fruitless task once again, but I’m keen to try.
Over the weekend I’ve been going through what I have, trying to piece together my thinking through retracing notebook comments, sketches, Word documents, scans, and some Sibelius files. It’s felt like a somewhat narcissistic musicology project, but fun all the same. I’ve got to scan some handwritten modules from c.2006-7 tomorrow so I have a complete record, and then I’ll see what might work. It’s going to take a lot of effort and there will only be a partial set of materials I think (I don’t plan on composing new modules). I hope to have something by the summer, if not before.
Other than that, I am planning on making an edition of all the #[unassigned] scores with short commentaries or notes on their performances. This will probably involve notebook plans and the performance materials as PDFs initially. It’s been very interesting and a little nostalgic going back over these pieces. It would be lovely to make them in some capacity once again.