RAM composers  2020

Conrad Asman • Notificacophony (2020): for Wind Quintet & Piano
Performed by: CHROMA x RAM Performers Ensemble
100 Ideas about Art Concert • Sound & Vision Festival
Royal Academy of Music

PROGRAMME NOTE

The quirkiness and humour present in the "mechanical expression" seen in the works of French Avant-garde painter Francis Picabia sparked the creation of this composition for Wind Quintet and Piano. Picabia's mechanical drawings ironically highlight both the efficiency and inefficiency of the technological zeitgeist of the 1930s, including the portable camera.

Notificacophony, similarly, highlights the peculiar, fascinating, entertaining, strange, nagging and relentless thing to which most of us are already addicted: our smartphones. The constant pinging and dinging sounds including bleeps and bloops (and everything in between) that ring out of these devices dominate the entire material of this short, fast work. This results in a cacophony of notifications, or just simply, a 'notificacophony'.

Notificacophony

CHROMA:
Stuart King (clarinet), Richard Bayliss (horn), Rolf Hind (piano)

RAM student instrumentalists:
Lucy Driver (flute), Isabel Kent (oboe), Ryan Delgado Bareirro (bassoon)

In 1434, Dutch painter Jan van Eyck, at the court of Philip the
Good in Burgundy, finished the Alfornini Portrait, one of the earliest oil
paint masterpieces. In 1508, Michelangelo completed his statue, David,
in Florence. The year before, the Duke of Ferrara commissioned
Burgundian composer Josquin des Prez to set Psalm 51, Miserere mei
Deus, in honor of Florentine Catholic heretic Girolamo Savonarola. In
1584, Franco-Flemish composer Orlande de Lassus set the Miserere mei
Deus within his setting of the Seven Penitential Psalms, modeling it after
des Prez.

Jan van Eyck’s techniques catalyzed the diffusion of oil painting in
Europe, from Belgium to Florence. The layering of translucent colors
allowed for greater control in light, color, and detail. This addition is
opposite to that of sculpture, in which material is chipped, broken, and
smoothed away. One creates the image from nothing while the other
finds the image hidden within.

On The Invention of Oil, 1434/On David, 1508 explores musical
analogues for ‘the hidden image’ in the resonance of instruments. As the
layers of paint slowly form the image, pitch slowly emerges out the
resonance of the woodwinds. As successive chips mold the sculpture, the
successive operations inside the piano mold its resonance.

At the core of this piece are transcriptions and manipulations of
both Josquin’s and Lassus’ Miserere mei Deus, which petitions God to
refine us, to build us up, to remove our impurities, to create in us a new
heart. It asks God to reveal the hidden image within us which is pleasing,
which is good.

The Invention of Oil, 1434/On David, 1508

This piece was commissioned for CHROMA Ensemble, and was performed by them in a side-by-side concert at the Royal Academy of Music, London on 13th January 2020, in Sound and Vision Festival.

The West coast of Scotland, where my home is, used to be part of the ancient Gaelic kingdom of Dalriada and the centre of one of the biggest schools of Medieval rock carving, with many examples of rocks that still remain in the area, inscribed with Celtic knotwork designs, silhouettes of warriors and other mysterious and evocative images.
I have been interested for a long time in writing a piece inspired by these rock carvings, as the process of carving into a solid and lasting substance like rock seems to be almost the opposite of the compositional process, where the composer sculpts with sound which is so ephemeral, yet in other ways aspects of the carving seems to resonate with my own practice, making marks with pencil and paper. Each movement of this piece takes a different rock carving from the Kintyre peninsula as a starting point. Through these I have explored the contrasts between solid and ephemeral sounds and I have also tried to find ways in which they can merge.

Carved Into Rock (CHROMA Ensemble Commission)

In Renaissance Italy Leonardo da Vinci was experimenting with a new technique that would revolutionise art. Breathtaking high contrasts brought a new psychological layer to his religious paintings. His canvases became battle grounds between light and dark; good and evil; angels and demons.

This piece explores the fragility of hope in the midst of utter darkness; the beauty of innocence against corruption; and the brilliance of joy against the shadows that lurk in the mind.

"In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

- John 1:4-5

For my sister Holly

...and the darkness has not overcome it || CHROMA Ensemble x Royal Academy Musicians

CHROMA is an acclaimed London-based chamber ensemble dedicated both to new music and to revisiting classic repertoire in fresh and exciting contexts; mentoring the next generation of composers, and involving audiences in compelling, inspirational experiences.

--- CHROMA MEMBERS ---
Artistic Director - Stuart King
Producer - Claire Shovelton
Violin - Marcus Barcham-Stevens, David Le Page
Violin/viola - Charlotte Bonneton
Viola  - David Aspin
Cello - Zoe Martlew
Double Bass - Elena Hull
Flute - Sarah O'Flynn
Oboe - Emma Feilding
Clarinet - Stuart King
Horn - Richard Bayliss
Trumpet - Heidi Bennett
Trombone - Ryan Hume
Tuba - Edd Leech
Piano - Roderick Chadwick, Martin Cousin
Percussion - Steve Gibson
Harp - Helen Sharp
Accordion - Ian Watson
Guitar - Stewart French

RAM composers 2020

CHROMA ensemble