In a nearly one hour long interview Burrows explains the way in which he works with scores, giving mostly examples from his choreographies: the film choreography Hands (1995), The Stop Quartet (1996), Both Sitting Duet (2002). Hands, made for television in 1995, for the BBC/Arts Council, was the first time Jonathan worked with a score. However, The Stop Quartet, a piece for four dancers made in 1996, is the first score discussed here.
Jonathan Burrows contextualizes the interview in 2011: “The memory is very clear of Myriam talking with me about The Stop Quartet and Both Sitting Duet. The conversation challenged me to attempt to articulate what it was that I thought I was doing: why I wanted to work in this way with rhythm and counterpoint, and how I was thinking about materials and performance. My feeling re-reading the interview is that I was struggling to make sense of what was in my mind, and I think I’ve said it perhaps more clearly since, but the talk provoked a particular line of questioning which stays relevant for me even now.”
Jonathan Burrows introduces the principles of The Stop Quartet.
Matteo Fargion assisted Burrows in making the score for The Stop Quartet. One of the other musical collaborators for that piece, Kevin Volans, had introduced them to a scored way of working by Shobana Jeyasingh, a South Indian choreographer, based in London, who previously worked with Volans. Burrows is interested in Jeyasinghs method to use graph pahper, but when trying to compose in a similar way he “ran into a mess” and with the help of Matteo he then used another related notational system based on an African method of notating rhythm systems.