I don’t know if people play these party games anymore.

For a line of musicians. A phrase is played at the start of the line and copied by each subsequent musician. The instruments should ideally be of many different types to add to the complexity of copying each phrase.

Like the party game, the fun comes from the corruption of the phrase. It may be an advantage to have novice or non-musicians playing in the ensemble. Participants may choose to play unfamiliar or unusual instruments to introduce error but in the spirit of the game there should be no attempts to deliberately misplay or otherwise purposely mess up a phrase.

A performance of the piece may be structured in many ways:

Simple: each phrase being played and then passed down the line one by one. Once the phrase has reached the end of the line a new phrase is stared at the head of the line.

In pulses: a constant flow of phrases being issued from the head of the line so pulses of phrases go down the line.

In a round: the phrase is instigated by the leader then travels up and down the line, or round and round as in a circular motion.

The ensemble is free to come up with new ways of organising and performing the piece.

Nov 07