Donaueschingen 2018; H&N, Sat 29/12/18; 10:00pm

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

For the final H&N of the year, Tom Service presents a trio of orchestral works written for and premiered at this year's Donaueschingen Musiktage in October.

Ivan Fedele(b1953): Air on Air for basset horn and orchestra (with soloist Michele Marelli)

Malin Bång(b1974): splinters of ebullient rebellion

Marco Stroppa(b1959): Come Play With Me for electronics and orchestra

... and a piece for unaccompanied choir, Isabel Mundry(b1963)'s Mouhanad performed by the SWR Vocal Ensemble, conducted by Florian Helgathand.

... and TS is heard in conversation with Festival director Björn Gottstein.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001sgh

Personally, I don't think it's saying much to say that this promises to be a much better edition of H&N than last week's - but by any standards, this looks very good indeed.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Marco Stoppa on his Come Play with Me:

the piece, a passionate declaration of love for a European utopia, was born after he read Le loup dans la bergerie, by Eva Joly and Guillemette Faure.
Come Play with Me features a host of diverse situations in connection with a dramaturgical interpretation that associates intimate, lyrical moments with moments of tension and terror.

[…]
As in all my concert pieces, the composer writes, the title is based on a poem by William Butler Yeats (‘To a Squirrel at Kyle-na-no’), in which the poet expresses surprise over the reaction of a squirrel fleeing up a tree despite his peaceful intentions. Indeed, the squirrel fears for his life […]

W.B. Yeats (1865–1939): To a Squirrel at Kyle-na-no (from the 1919 collection The Wild Swans at Coole)

Come play with me;
Why should you run
Through the shaking tree
As though I’d a gun
To strike you dead?
When all I would do
Is to scratch your head
And let you go.


Each movement corresponds to a piece of the poem. 1. Come - 2. Play - 3. with Me - 4. Run - 5. Gun - 6. Strike - 7. Scratch - 8. Go (electronic cadence) […]

Unlike in my other concerts, the soloist isn’t an actual musician. It’s all electronics. […]
This is the first time in the history of music that electronics has played such a key role in orchestral music. The soloist materialized in an ‘acoustic totem’, the fifth generation in a family of recording devices I’ve been working on at IRCAM for the past 15 years.
A column of seven speakers pointed in different directions stands beside the conductor, for optimum sound diffusion.

Electronic sounds make no use whatsoever of real time! On the contrary, they enjoy complete musical and expressive autonomy. That’s the only way you can set up a dialogue with the orchestra. All the sounds were produced by two synthesizers developed by IRCAM – Modalys and OMChant. Modalys uses a technique based on ‘synthesis for physical models’. […] OMChant allows you to simulate vocal sounds. During the performance, the electronics soloist is polymorphic: strings, brass, tape deck, tuba, vocals.[…]

And (SPOILER! ) the work is YouTubable:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ifDJ_ggL4M

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

And (SPOILER! ) the work is YouTubable:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ifDJ_ggL4M

As, indeed, are the other works. Malin Bang's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmMQwjXDpCo

... Ivan Fedele's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2pc-cWvbsE

... and Isable Mundry's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiVW_XoctQk

[Richard Barrett]

Marco Stoppa on his Come Play with Me:



And (SPOILER! ) the work is YouTubable:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ifDJ_ggL4M

... technical sophistication not matched by musical invention, more from the IRCAM corporate-new-music machine...

[Serial_Apologist]

... technical sophistication not matched by musical invention, more from the IRCAM corporate-new-music machine...

"This is the first time in the history of music that electronics has played such a key role in orchestral music". A bit hubristic, no?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

"This is the first time in the history of music that electronics has played such a key role in orchestral music". A bit hubristic, no?

I was struck by this comment, too. I presumed that there was something "lost" (or, possibly, "gained"?) in translation.

[Richard Barrett]

"This is the first time in the history of music that electronics has played such a key role in orchestral music". A bit hubristic, no?

It isn't even the first time, or the second or third, that electronics has played such a key role in orchestral music from IRCAM! (Boulez, Saariaho...)

[MrGongGong]

It isn't even the first time, or the second or third, that electronics has played such a key role in orchestral music from IRCAM! (Boulez, Saariaho...)

Not to mention Respighi (Yes, I know it's not really electronics)

[Serial_Apologist]

Not to mention Respighi (Yes, I know it's not really electronics)

Well, that's one for the birds..............

[Richard Barrett]

... Ivan Fedele's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2pc-cWvbsE

Berio with a dash of Scelsi - oh and here come some trills from Sciarrino...

[Richard Barrett]

Malin Bang's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmMQwjXDpCo

Clusters, noise-textures and typewriters - Penderecki's Fluorescences (1961), also premiered in Donaueschingen.

If I didn't know better I'd be starting to suspect that contemporary composition was running out of steam.

[Joseph K]

Currently listening to the Stroppa piece. It's a bit wishy-washy.

[Vile Consort]

"This is the first time in the history of music that electronics has played such a key role in orchestral music". A bit hubristic, no?

If some is good, more must be better, nicht war?

[Quarky]

Marco Stroppa(b1959): Come Play With Me for electronics and orchestra

.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001sgh

Personally, I don't think it's saying much to say that this promises to be a much better edition of H&N than last week's - but by any standards, this looks very good indeed.

Well, well, well - Come play with Me was the best composition imv., the sounds seemingly originating from a natural source.

Since the Soloist in the piece is a Loudspeaker, it seemed to me a justifiable claim of a novel use of electronics, although somewhat over-hyped.

***But the entire programme requires repeated listening, imv ***
*****And on repeated listening, they are all excellent compositions. Would have appreciated a translation of Isabel Mundry's work. ******