Michael Cooke

The San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra (SFCCO) was invited to perform at the 2024 Skronkathon New Music Festival. Originally launched in 2001 at the Tuva Space storefront near the Ashby BART station, Skronkathon is an all-day marathon showcasing experimental and unconventional music from some of the Bay Area’s most creative musicians, often pushing the boundaries beyond mainstream tastes. I had the pleasure of performing at Skronkathon years ago when it was a more casual affair, complete with BBQs outside. This year, the event featured 19 acts spread across two stages: the Dresher Ensemble Studio and a second warehouse/loft space in the same building.

For our performance, we chose my composition Open Ended, which I felt aligned perfectly with the festival’s character. I conducted/composed the performance and played the Zurna—a double-reed woodwind instrument I picked up in Istanbul, known for its bright, high-pitched, and somewhat “squonky” sound.

Open Ended is a unique, versatile work where the composition unfolds live in front of the audience. Inspired by Rova’s Radar techniques, the piece is more of an open palette of sounds and tools rather than a set composition. As the conductor/composer, I use hand signals to guide the performers and shape the piece in real time. The beauty of this work lies in its flexibility—it can be performed by any combination of instruments, with no set instrumentation. For this performance, we had a rich mix of 2 woodwinds, 2 brass, 2 strings, a piano, and a vocalist, giving us a diverse array of sounds to explore.

We performed Open Ended twice, and as always, each rendition was a completely unique experience for both the audience and the performers.

Open Ended is a dynamic performance crafted live for the audience. Inspired by Rova’s Radar techniques, Open Ended is more of a vibrant palette than a fixed composition. It’s an expanding set of guidelines and games for the musicians, directed by the conductor’s hand signals. Rather than following a predetermined script, the conductor composes on the spot, responding to the present moment and guiding the performers with these signals. This concept mirrors the “Soundpainting” language, a pioneering creation by Walter Thompson in Woodstock, New York, 1974. The beauty of Open Ended lies in its adaptability. With no fixed instrumentation, any number of musicians can partake. The duration is equally fluid, ranging from a brisk 5 minutes to a marathon 24 hours. Though it has been showcased several times, with memorable renditions in 2005, 2009, and 2018 by the SFCCO, each performance is a unique, unrepeatable world première. This rendition of Open Ended includes a special homage to SFCCO founder, Mark Alburger. I have crafted two variations of three phrases, each inspired by the Morse code sequence for ‘Mark George Alburger.’

– – .- .-. -.- / – -. . – – – .-. – -. . / .- .-.. -… ..- – -. . .-.

Rhythm is created by assigning the dashes, or long signals in Morse code, twice the note value of the dots, which represent the short signals. The audience was then given the opportunity to choose which version they wanted to hear incorporated into this performance of Open Ended.