In 2015, Dan Joseph curated a program on music for Contemplation featuring Stuart Dempster. A highpoint of that program was a new work, Tromba Annunciation, for twelve trombones. I was particularly inspired by how Stuart works with groups. The trombonists will remember how Stuart initiated, followed, and shaped the music as it manifested. How Stuart worked without sheet music in a circular music were particularly energizing. I believe there is significant work still to be done in this direction. I had kept this in the back of my mind for a number of years. Something clicked when I saw a graphic from Tom Johnson.

I saw that this might be a stage direction; players stand on the nodes and improvise the harmony in a circular fashion. Johnson's Networks is inspired by combination theory, and is a new approach to harmony. This graphic helped Johnson work out harmonic movement. Then I knew that this was how we could move forward with the work in circles that Stuart had so masterfully demonstrated.

When I thought of what composers might have the capacity and experience to continue this work, Tony Geballe and Dan Joseph immediately came to mind. Tony (who studied with Stuart in Seattle) has long experience in Robert Fripp's Guitar Craft and Guitar Circle, as well as with the Columbari Theater company. Dan came out of the DC punk scene, studied with Pauline Oliveros, and has been a driving force behind the Musical Ecologies Series.

Tony Geballe (center), with Doug Farrand (R), and Ben Lieberman.

Tony began asking each of us to introduce ourselves, and then to all pick a tone. We then played that tone, one after another, around the circle. Then he gave us a set of pitches to choose from, and asked us to play a different tone on each pass around the circle. We then did various versions of this: long, short, two at once, and different directions. This was all without sheet music. The trumpet players were very engaged.

After this, Tony brought out notated rows of pitches for eight trumpets, building dense chords which moved and shifted. We tried these in various ways.

After that, the guitars arrived. We set up two concentric circles: steel-string acoustic guitars with ebows on the inside, and trumpets with mutes on the outside. I stood in the middle, turning to my left or to my right as we worked with Tom Johnson's Networks (7-3-2).

On any three-note chord, there was always one from one circle, and two from the other. The challenge to the musicians was to listen across the room two to the right and/or two to the left. The other challenge was to line up the beginning of one's tone with the end of someone's sitting two seats to your left or right. A lot of this was done with eye contact - one of the benefits of working without sheet music.

Then the trumpets left and Dan Joseph worked with the guitars.

Dan sat down with his guitar, and without sheet music, showed the players what to play. The sound spread through the group, then he would play the next motive, a slight variation of the first. This then overlapped and spread throughout the group. He then gave another, and another. As the sound spread throughout the room, it seemed that the acoustic guitars were resonating with each other. I could see the sun streaming in the window and few specs of dust floating in the air. As I sat there listening, tears came to my eyes. There was nowhere I would rather be.

This was familiar to the work Dan has done on dulcimer, such as the gorgeous Dulcimer Flight.

The research day as a success: the musicians asked to continue the work, Tony and Dan both received essential information about their work, and the musicians reported making music in ways they had never done before. Splitting research from any scheduled performance gave the composers and performers freedom to try things out, to risk sounding bad, and to share comments and ideas with no pressure. Importantly for the work with Networks, we now know that's it's possible to improvise this harmony.

Clockwise from right: Elisa Corona, Patrick Grant, Jack Lawrence, Jaime Beauchamp, Eduardo Palacios, Jay Sorce, Geordie Austen, Jason Goldstein, Chad Ossman, Dan Joseph.