music composed by Martin Arnold (2019); words: traditional
performed by:
Sharron Kraus: voice; bamboo flute
Angharad Davies: voice; violin
Martin Arnold: melodica
BBC Scottish Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov

The Gay Goshawk (excerpt)

Live performance

Ekmeles, directed by Jeffrey Gavett
Moore Musical Arts Center, Bowling Green State University, Ohio
22 November 2021

Madrigal book in 31-TET (2012-16) after Nicola Vicentino
Texts adapted from Jacques Arcadelt's Primo Libro de' Madrigali (1539)

Primo Libro

Fredrik Rasten: "Dyads for solo violin" (2020, world premiere)

Johnny Chang, violin

30.04.2022
Live performance at "Partitions & Resonances" series.
Hosted by Audio Foundation
Recorded by Jeff Henderson

Fredrik Rasten - Dyads for solo violin (Live at Audio Foundation)

Composed in 2004. Studio recording by members of Apartment House: 
Nancy Ruffer (bass flute), Andrew Sparling (clarinet), Gordon MacKay (violin), Anton Lukoszevieze (cello) and Philip Thomas (piano).
From 'Chamber Works 1992-2009' released on Another Timbre in 2014.
Recorded by Simon Reynell
http://www.anothertimbre.com



Seven Short Pieces

…like many surfaces of an attempt, for Schallfeld ensemble (2018)

impuls Minutenkonzerte
esc kunst medien labor Graz
May 26th 2018 

Schallfeld ensemble: 
Myriam García Fidalgo violoncello 
Matej Bunderla saxophone
Szilárd Benes bass clarinet 
Juan Pablo Trad Hasbun double bass 
Davide Gagliardi sound

Program notes:
This piece is about the distance between musical events and the difficulties posed in making connections between them. However, connections between them still somehow exist. They have to be searched for, invented, discovered. There is something disturbing in that process, but also calming. In the second part of the piece I use a text that I wrote, which gives the listeners new opportunities for constructing the flow of the music and deciphering its meaning. 

Text: 

What if we meet and I fall in love?
What if we meet and we don’t like each other?
What if we meet and we like each other 
so much, that we can not 
breathe? 

What if we meet and you start to hate me?
What if we meet and you are boring to me?
What if we meet and I seem old to you?
What if we meet and you like me more?
What if we meet and I like you more?
What if we meet and you fuck me 
so hard, that I don’t wanna
talk? 

What if we meet and I don’t like your smell?
What if we meet and you’re  not impressed 
with my body?
What if we meet and you say something wrong 
something stupid 
something cruel? 
What if we meet and you scare me?
What if we meet and we don’t understand 
each other?

What if we meet and it’s raining 
so heavily
that we have to stay inside and fuck 
all the time
and hug all the time
and talk all the time?

What if we meet and it’s sunny 
so beautiful
that we have to kiss on the grass 
all the time
hide from other people all the time
smile at each other 
all the time?

What if we meet and I hate the way you smoke 
the way you walk
the way you’re touching me?

What if we meet and you don’t like my thoughts, 
my worlds, my colors of the 
rainbow?
What if we meet and we realize that we 
are two different galaxies?
What if we meet and I feel that I’m not 
enough for you?

What if we meet and it gets awkward? 
What if we meet and I get anxious?
What if we meet and you faint?
What if we meet and …? 
                ………
                ……
                 ….
What if we never meet?

Sonja Mutić

...like many surfaces of an attempt, for Schallfeld Ensemble

Extract from Jurg Frey's 'Late Silence' (2017) played by Ensemble Grizzana. The work is based on two fragments of early music - Ockeghem's 'Deploration sur la mort de Binchois' and Byrd's 'How Vain are all our Frail Delights'. From the CD 'Early to Late', which includes this piece and a sister composition by Magnus Granberg, which is based on the same fragments of music, but develops quite differently.

Jurg Frey 'Late Silence' extract

Two movements from a performance of Olivier Messiaen's 'Quatuor pour la fin du temps' (1941) by Apartment House - Anton Lukoszevieze, cello, Mira Benjamin, violin, Heather Roche, clarinet, and Philip Thomas, piano. Apartment House's performance is unusual in avoiding dramatic phrasing and use of vibrato etc. It was released on CD alongside Linda Catlin Smith's composition 'Among the Tarnished Stars' (1998), for the same instrumentation.

extract from Olivier Messiaen's 'Quatuor pour la fin du temps' by Apartment House

Extract from Morton Feldman's 'For Bunita Marcus' played by Philip Thomas. From a forthcoming 5-CD box set of Feldman's piano music to be released in September 2019.

extract from Morton Feldman's 'For Bunita Marcus' played by Philip Thomas

Extract from 'Ricercar nell'ombra' (2019), a piece jointly developed by Emmanuel Holterbach and the Italian ensemble 'Blutwurst'.
Cristina Abati (viola), Marco Baldini (trumpet), Maurizio Constantini (double bass), Daniela Fantechi (accordion), Michele Lanzini (cello), Edoardo Ricci (bass clarinet), Luisa Santacesaria (harmonium)

'Ricercar nell'ombra' by Emmanuel Holterbach & Blutwurst

'Y Tŷ Unnos 5' by J.P.A. Falzone, played by Morgan Evans-Weiler (violin) and J.P.A. Falzone (piano & vibraphone), from the double CD 'Chordioid', featuring one disc each of compositions by the two performers.

J.P.A. Falzone 'Y Tŷ Unnos 5'

In 2011 the German ensemble Streichseptett Heiligenberg organised a portrait concert dedicated to my teacher Martin Smolka. He very kindly suggested to them that I, as his student at that time, should also write a piece for them for that occasion.

At the beginning there was a tempting opportunity to write a piece for a very unusual string septet: descant (a kind of high violin), 2 violins, viola, tenor (or high) cello, cello and double bass with an added low string. It was also inspiring that each instrument was made from the wood of a different tree. The tempting aspect for me at that time was mainly the pairing of "usual" with "unusual" instruments.

In those years I was focused on monochromatic instrumentation and was exploring clusters of different densities (writing rather utopian pieces, which are hard to perform due to their instrumentation). Within these clusters some simpler elements are usually hidden, which for me form some of the basic elements of music (a simple triad, or a fragment of a melody) which have to be “excavated”.

In Septett I “hid” simple triads (g-minor, d-minor) which gradually become clearer within the musical process. These chords slowly become slightly out of tune because of the natural harmonics (mostly 7th) which replace the more "well-tuned" pitches. Amongst other things, I also had on my mind the velvety sound of the fujara (a traditional Slovak flute).

In 2015 I rewrote the piece for standard instruments for the Ostrava Days festival. I wanted to use two different kinds of mutes (a standard, and a practice metal mute) and thus divide the ensemble into two slightly different trios (vn-vla-vc) with the unmuted doublebass situated inbetween. But during the rehearsals fascinanting things started to happen: the muted instruments were reluctant to spread the rainbows of different spectra, which clash into each other during the piece, especially in the opening texture. So finally the musicians played without mutes, even in the softest dynamics.

The composition is dedicated to Gérard Grisey, for his enthusiasm for working with unclear roles of individual parameters. However, I must also thank Martin Smolka, both for the wonderful suggestion that I should write this piece, and later for the surprise he gave me by sending to me Bohumil Hrabal's Tender Barbarian at exactly the most decisive moment of composing the piece.

Septett

Adrian Demoč

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