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August 24, 2005
Composing...
I'm spending all of my time working on the commission for a harp and computer piece. In the process I am also making the move away from using Finale for notation to using the OpenSource music typesetter LilyPond. It is a very diferent way of working. LilyPond is a text markup language that produces wonderfully looking score - that is, once you are familiar with the syntax. Most of the stuff can be changed and tweaked but it's pretty far from Finale's WYSWYG style of working. I will eventually start posting some examples here so, if you start feeling tired of paying money to be a beta tester to Coda Music and Finale, take a look here in a few weeks and learn more about LilyPond and the wonderful world of all text files!
Posted by henrikfr at 11:52 PM | Comments (0)
August 11, 2005
KnowledgeLab Berlin, June 2005
In June 2005 I took part in an event called Knowledge Lab staged by art historian Sarat Maharaj, singer Liu Sola, dancer Kofi Koko and the House of World Cultures in Berlin. There was a number of participants from all over the world and as an improvisor and researcher I was invited to participate actively. I did learn a lot from the experience, although not at all the things I had expected to gain. I became very frustrated with the loose structure of what was intended to investigate new grounds for sharing of knowledge - intellectual knowledge on equal terms with body knowledge. The fact that I was frustrated does not in any way mean that the attempt was unsuccessful. It may be that I was not ready or simply didn't understand what was going on. It may also be that my own history, growing up during the 70's, prevented me from participating fully in the event.
In any event I find the idea of knowledge free from language interesting. There is a strong tendency to look at information as something that can only be shared through text, preferrably written down. However true this may be it is a very occidental way of looking at the matter and Sarat Maharaj's idea that a thought may just as well be expressed in movement or any other non-verbal expression is intriguing. He engourged us to leave the body versus mind dichotomy and embrace a post-cartesian approach. I believe this approach to be a prerequisite for a true global understanding - we (in the western world) must empathize that less verbally oriented cultures have just as much understanding of the great questions as we do even if this knowledge manifests itself in different ways.
Posted by henrikfr at 10:38 PM | Comments (0)
August 09, 2005
Thoughts about idiomatic writing for harp.
While going through the first sketches for my harp and computer piece with the harpist yesterday I started thinking about the relation between the compositional and general idea of the music taking shape and its relation to the limits of the instrument. The character and the material of this particular composition is governed by a very short six note motive (C-D-Eb-Db-B-C). This motive was obviously not written with the instrument in mind since this particular sucession of notes cannot be played without pedal changes.
It can be argued that it is not possible, or at least difficult, to write idiomatic music for harp with this motive. However, I find it insteresting to look at it this issue as a process of negotiation between the musical or artistic intention on the one hand, and the ease of play on the other. This isn't a static matter. A passage that is to come out has calm and confident will be likely to sound better if written in a range and style that is easy to play while a relatively erratic and nervous passage may actually sound really good if written less idiomatically.
The idea for this piece is to display the character of three different “personalities” in a sort of discussion and let these three characters undergo a transformation in the course of the piece. These personalities are stereotypes and can be seen as three sides of one person or as three different persona. In either case the point is to make audible the “other side” of a typical character. There is the confident, the nervous and insecure, and the shy.
As an example, the confident gestalt is gradually transforming and becoming increasingly uncertain. This can be done in a very subtle way by letting the writing becoming less and less idiomatic requiring more strain from the performer. For it to become clear I will have to combine this with other expressional means as well but the point is that I can make exceptions from the “rules’ of the material and the system (i.e. changing notes in the original notes) in order to make the music more idiomatic when the music needs to be effortlessly played while at other instants I can allow myself to stay closer to the system even if this means the score becomes very difficult to play.
Posted by henrikfr at 07:41 PM | Comments (0)
August 04, 2005
Back again...
After a long and well needed summer brake, and a remake of my studio, I am now slowly returning to work. I have had lots of time to think, and spent some time reading. The harp piece is now at a point where, when it comes to the harp part, I merely need time to sit down and write it out. Hopefully I will get a chance to do some recordings with the harpist to be used in the electronics within the next few days.
In parallel with that a new project has emerged that I am feeling very excited about. As part of a larger project by my friend and PhD collegue Stefan Östersjö I was asked to do a soundscape that will accompany an installation centered around the myth of Orpheus. The material used for the soundscape would be a piece by German composer Rolf Riehm
As I started working on it, and discussed it with Stefan (who has also written a very interesting paper on Riehms piece), it occurred to me that a valid method with which I could aproach the process would be to categorize each and every sound in Toccata Orpheus with respect to the physical motion required by Stefan to produce the sounds. One top level group could be “sounds produced with arms crossed”. Sub-level groups could be “plucked with nail” or “tapped with palm” etc. The processing applied to the samples would add even more dimensions to the space. The process of composing the soundscape would then be a sort of virtual choreography; adding different movements together to form patterns.
It may or it may not result in good music, this remains to be heard, but I find the method as such thrilling and inspiring.
Posted by henrikfr at 11:04 PM | Comments (0)