The concert takes place at 20.00, and the programme is as follows:
Gavin Bryars - A Man in a Room, Gambling 3 und 6 (1992) for voice and string quartet
Harrison Birtwistle Five Lessons in a Frame (2015) for 13 players (first performance in Germany, commissioned by Musikfabrik and London Sinfonietta)
Anthony Braxton - Composition No. 169 (1992); Composition No. 199 (1997)
Richard Barrett - natural causes I, IV, X, XIV (2016/17) for 16 performers and electronics (first performance, commissioned by Musikfabrik)
Maybe there's an interested forum member or two within easy distance of Cologne, but probably not! Anyway, this being a concert at the Westdeutscher Rundfunk, it will be recorded for broadcast and I'll flag up the date when I know what it is.
One reason for my starting this thread is to mention that natural causes (which will eventually consist of sixteen parts with a duration of about two hours; the present version is just over half an hour long) is based on a "libretto" by our late friend Simon Howard, who wrote the text in the summer of 2013 as his part of a collaboration between us. The title makes it sound like four separate pieces, but actually it's more complicated than that... while part X (an unaccompanied vocal solo) occupies its own place at the centre of the conglomerate work, part I (four movements for wind quartet) and part IV (eight movements for various ensembles) are split up into their constituent sections and embedded within part XIV (for improvising ensemble) which runs almost continuously. (The Roman numerals refer to the order of the sixteen sections of Simon's text.) This instalment is mostly instrumental, with some vocal and electronic elements, and contains no "text-setting" in the traditional sense, even in the vocal solo section, but the text informs the music just as strongly in various other ways. (The three future instalments will be predominantly vocal, predominantly electronic and equally balanced between vocal, electronic and instrumental music respectively.)
I hope it's turned out to be something Simon would have liked. I arrived in Cologne today for my first rehearsal and (I don't say this lightly) I'm quite amazed at what these people can do.
Gavin Bryars - A Man in a Room, Gambling 3 und 6 (1992) for voice and string quartet
Harrison Birtwistle Five Lessons in a Frame (2015) for 13 players (first performance in Germany, commissioned by Musikfabrik and London Sinfonietta)
Anthony Braxton - Composition No. 169 (1992); Composition No. 199 (1997)
Richard Barrett - natural causes I, IV, X, XIV (2016/17) for 16 performers and electronics (first performance, commissioned by Musikfabrik)
Maybe there's an interested forum member or two within easy distance of Cologne, but probably not! Anyway, this being a concert at the Westdeutscher Rundfunk, it will be recorded for broadcast and I'll flag up the date when I know what it is.
One reason for my starting this thread is to mention that natural causes (which will eventually consist of sixteen parts with a duration of about two hours; the present version is just over half an hour long) is based on a "libretto" by our late friend Simon Howard, who wrote the text in the summer of 2013 as his part of a collaboration between us. The title makes it sound like four separate pieces, but actually it's more complicated than that... while part X (an unaccompanied vocal solo) occupies its own place at the centre of the conglomerate work, part I (four movements for wind quartet) and part IV (eight movements for various ensembles) are split up into their constituent sections and embedded within part XIV (for improvising ensemble) which runs almost continuously. (The Roman numerals refer to the order of the sixteen sections of Simon's text.) This instalment is mostly instrumental, with some vocal and electronic elements, and contains no "text-setting" in the traditional sense, even in the vocal solo section, but the text informs the music just as strongly in various other ways. (The three future instalments will be predominantly vocal, predominantly electronic and equally balanced between vocal, electronic and instrumental music respectively.)
I hope it's turned out to be something Simon would have liked. I arrived in Cologne today for my first rehearsal and (I don't say this lightly) I'm quite amazed at what these people can do.
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