Quasi (ébauche) performed by the Arditti String Quartet at the Norhwestern University New Music Conference, NUNC 4.
In Quasi (ébauche) the original formative ideas are constantly recalled in a series of reconstructions of the past in constantly present contexts, having at times more fidelity—and at times growing less similar—to the original experience. These reconstructions, by means of pitch gene recombinations, leave only memory vestiges of the original by constantly shifting, diffusing, distorting, transforming, omitting or adding events according to a model of retention/corruption.
It is, in other words, like drawing “on the elements and gist of the past, and extract, recombine and reassemble them into imaginary events that never occurred in that exact form,…not to preserve the past but to adapt it so as to enrich and manipulate the present.’’ It is all about what is remembered and how it is remembered…
Recording session with the Arditti String Quartet for the New Music Conference NUNC! 4 at the Institute for New Music at Northwestern University, U.S.A.| Zoom session | March 5th, 2021
I am deeply indebted to Irvine, Ashot, Ralf, and Lucas of the Arditti String Quartet and, of course, Hans Thomalla, artistic director of NUNC!, and his team for having made this happen. With the Arditti String Quartet as the main guest ensemble, NUNC! 4 was originally planned in April last year and had to be postponed when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.
Among a total of nine works the quartet was supposed to workshop and perform is also my string quartet Quasi (ébauche)available by Babel Scores.
Due to the continuing problems caused by the pandemic, NUNC! 4 was decided to take place online on April 24th and the recordings made on March 4th, 5th, and 6th will be hosted on NUNC! website.
There is an interesting background story about how this recording took place that I quote from Hans Thomalla’s wall:
“Since the quartet is based in London and Germany, and travel to the US is restricted, we had hoped to arrange for a recording session in Germany, so those nine works would still have a platform at the conference. With the new English virus mutation causing a lockdown for travel from London that option closed down last month. The country of Luxembourg, in the heart of Europe, still permits travel from England, though, and the quartet had a concert scheduled there, which in spite of all the restrictions in the world right now actually happened. The Luxembourg conservatory of Music, their President and their chair in composition Claude Lenners – in a gesture of incredible support for New Music and for our conference – offered a concert hall and the infrastructure for the event and the workshops are now happening there.”
Many thanks to all of you: the Arditti String quartet, Hans Thomalla, Claude Lenners, the Luxenmbourg Conservatory, and Jerry sets from concerts at Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University.
“…risuona più lontano che mai”(2018) for flute, saxophone, piano, and percussion. Commissioned by ilSUONO Contemporary Music Week 2018 for ensemble Il Suono Giallo.
Performed by Ensemble Suono Giallo, Italy: Andrea Biagini, flute; Michele Bianchini, saxophone; Laura Mancini, percussion; Simone Nocchi, piano
Program Notes
“…risuona piu lontano che mai” is a work shaped and, at the same time, fractured by the brevity of its mnemonic fragments, which reappear in manifold and often distressing reocurrences and insistent retrospections through a series of regenerations and rearrangements of the material. Echoing the strangeness of an indescribable sound, these mnemonic fragments are advancing and regressing non-linearly, in stumbles and stutters, uncertainties and hesitations. They are treated as, what Deleuze (and Guattari would call, blocks of becomings in contemplative and non-hierarchical dialogues with one another. As something happening in the process, in intimate intimacy.
“A becoming is always in the middle; one can only get it by the middle. A becoming is neither one, or two, nor the relation of the two; it is the in-between, the borderline or line of flight… If becoming is a block (a line-block), it is because it constitutes a zone of proximity and indiscernability, a no-man’s land, a non-localizable relation sweeping up the two distant or contiguous points, carrying one into the proximity of the other – and the border-proximity is indifferent to both contiguity and to distance.” Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus. Capitalism and Schizophrenia, trans. Brian Massumi (Continuum, London and New York, 2003), p. 293.
Listen to Effluences (2011) for flute, bass clarinet, violin, cello, and piano Live @ Delian Academy for New Music 2017 (delianacademy.com)
Grypario Cultural Center, Mykonos, Greece
A huge thank you to the ensemble Oerknal for their stunning performance!
Gregory Charette – conductor
Susanne Peters – flutes
Daniel Boeke – clarinets
Daniel Walden – piano
Mariana Hutchinson Siemers – violin
René van Munster – cello
The CD features 60 world premiere recordings of One Minute compositions for solo flute(s) by 42 composers from 17 countries: Argentine, Australia, Canada, Cyprus, England, France, Greece, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Israel, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, and U.S.A.
On track nr. 40 you will find my work Etude in Quarter Tones for piccolo flute
I am thankful to Iwona Glinka for playing my Etude in Quarter Tones for piccolo flute on track nr. 40 of this CD soon to be released by Sarton Records, Poland. Amazing artwork, as well, by graphic designer Beata Czerepak.
The CD features 60 world premiere recordings of One Minute compositions for solo flute(s) by 42 composers from 17 countries: Argentine, Australia, Canada, Cyprus, England, France, Greece, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Israel, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, and U.S.A.
The work consists of a limited number of brief chord progressions that are woven, rewoven, and occasionally juxtaposed to form longer static moments into the structure. The reduction of the sound elements, on the other hand, is intended to shift the listeners’ attention to the inner life of the piano – it’s resonance, so that the music exists rather in the space between the piano and the audience.
I would like to share with you the recording of my workIntrascalings(2014) for clarinet, marimba, and double bass,which was premiered by the amazing ensemble et cetera on October 10th, 2014. I am deeply indebted to the three members of the ensemble, Dustin Donahue – percussion, Curt Miller – clarinet, and Scott Worhington – double bass for all their excellent performance.
The performance took place on October 10th, 2014 at the Conrad Prebys Music Center of the University of California, San Diego.
The program also included the premiers of two very exciting works by Joseph Lake and Timothy McCormack.
Joseph Lake, Vyssan Lull (2014) for clarinet, percussion and double bass
Timothy McCormack, KILN II (2013-14) for bass clarinet, contrabass & percussion
Performed by the string quartet of the Ensemble Klangforum on July 2nd, 2014, at Ligeti Saal, Mumuth, Graz.
Program Notes
The corruptive dimension of the reconstructive nature of memory serves as a formal model for the unraveling of the present work. Recent neuroscience research coraborates early twentieth century views on memory as a dynamic and evolving phenomenon:
remembering is not a simple retrieval of past events. Memory stores only fragments of the past that later serve for the mental reconstruction of past events, which are susceptible to various kinds of biases and distortions, as well as selective and elaborative processes.
In Quasi (ébauche) the original formative ideas are constantly recalled in a series of reconstructions of the past in constantly present contexts, having at times more fidelity—and at times growing less similar—to the original experience. These reconstructions, by means of pitch gene recombinations, leave only memory vestiges of the original by constantly shifting, diffusing, distorting, transforming, omitting or adding events according to a model of retention/corruption.
It is, in other words, like drawing “on the elements and gist of the past, and extract, recombine and reassemble them into imaginary events that never occurred in that exact form,…not to preserve the past but to adapt it so as to enrich and manipulate the present.’’ It is all about what is remembered and how it is remembered…
Iriai no kane [9:00] for chamber ensemble (commissioned by Edo Micic and the Ensemble Zeitfluss) | Performed by the Ensemble Zeitfluss, Edo Micic – conductor | Minoritensaal at the Kultur Zentrum Minoriten, Graz, Austria | June 23, 2008.
BabelScores®searches for and selects the works of the most creative, innovative and original composers of the last decades. It offers an extended catalogue and develops a powerful circulation platform, addressed specially to performers, ensembles, orchestras, composers, musicologists, conservatories, universities and festivals around the world.
The playlist includes works by composers such as Anthony Tan, Paul Méfano, Pedro Garcia-Vasquez, Joakim Sandgren, Lucas Fagin, Vicente Barrientos Yépez, Olga Bochikhina, and Punto Rosso. Definitely worth listening to!
The performance took place on October 10th, 2014 at the Conrad Prebys Music Center of the University of California, San Diego.
