Fish Of The Week

Commissioned by the Phoenix Foundation and performed at the Contemporary Improvised Music Festival, Korzo Theatre, The Hague, 12 November 1993. Martin Davidson's interpretation of the rules of Fish of the week is as follows: There is a sequences of pre-determined areas (fishes) to follow. Beresford has a set of notices indicating which fish is current. One fish involves playing snippets of 1950s jingles (or something like that), and another is a delectably corny tune that is guaranteed to produce a chuckle from every listener, etc etc. If anyone rings a bicycle bell (anyone can at any time) then the following occurs: Beresford turns over two sequences of cards which are visible to all the performers. Each card indicates who is to improvise, and also has a number indicating which style they are to improvise in. Each performer has a score which indicates (among other things) what the number means - this is different for each person. Among the types of improvisation indicated are: favourite style, least favourite style, only play when other person is, only play when other person is not, etc etc. The improvised duo then continues until the others had had enough of it - they can either go back to the fish or ring a bell to start another duet.