The17 is a choir. It writes and performs improvised music scores and does not make recordings of its performances. Anyone who wants to can become a member of the17 by joining a performance on its tour across the UK and Worldwide[1]. The17 was founded by Bill Drummond as a development of his interest in choral music, after hearing the music of Arvo Pärt.[2] It also follows Drummond's belief that "all recorded music has run its course".[3]
The principal tenets for scores performed by The17 are stated on Penkiln Burn Notice 14[4]:
File:The17 Choir, Poster 59, Bill Drummond.pdf
"17 SCORES
Can be performed by people with no musical experience; Can be performed by people with extensive musical experience; Require only the human voice; May have little reliance on melody, harmony or rhythm; Will never be recorded for any kind of posterity or broadcast; Will never be commodified by the music industry; Will never be performed for an audience; Exist only for the experience of those performing them; Create a new relationship with music.
Note: The SCORES may evolve, change or be deleted and replaced. The SCORES exist in the public domain, open to all interpretations. The SCORES are available on-line, on posters or other media. The SCORES will be performed by The17. They can also be performed by you".
Drummond states that he thought of the name immediately.[5] It has origins in his love of Prime numbers, and his idea of the seventeenth year as a stage of life between the "sweet, coy"[6] sixteen and the full adulthood of eighteen. It is also a play on the name of The Sixteen, a professional choir admired by him.[6] While the first performance of the17 was carried out by 17 men in a studio in Leicester, the name does not dictate the number of choir members for a performance; scores may be performed by hundreds of voices or none[7].
The choir's ethos derives from Drummond's disillusionment with recorded music. He released a manifesto calling on people to "dispense with all previous forms of music and music-making and start again",[8]
Each performance has no audience and is never recorded.[9] Also, there is no sheet music; instead the choir performs according to instructions written by Drummond or other choir members. These instructions (called "scores," but bearing little relation to musical scores) are open to change over time, and exist in the public domain.[10]
The choir has a constantly shifting membership (the choir's website states that to join one need only turn up and sing [11]); as of April 2009 there have been 1,508 performers, mostly members of the public with little or no experience in professional music.
In 2006, Drummond was invited to help schoolchildren compose scores in a project sponsored by the Arts Council. Children from several primary and secondary schoolsinCounty Durham wrote scores that were eventually compiled in the book Scores 18–76. The children also performed their scores in the Hatton Gallery, Newcastle.[12]
