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Four In One - Thelonious Monk

Petter Dalane - piano
Anders Hjemmen - bass
Bjørn Andre Syverinsen - trommer
Erlend Vangen Kongtorp - tenorsax

Four In One - Petter Dalane Trio og Erlend Vangen Kongtorp

Marsj nr 23

Kjerkemusikk

https://youtu.be/lo8EposWy_g?si=gsfvh2Q17-W1ZjAp 

 Denne marsjen skreiv min gode kamerat Jan Sørlie og jeg sammen ca år 2000. Jan hadde mesteparten av barytonstemmen i hodet, jeg tror han hadde spilt på dette i mange år når jeg ble involvert.

En lystig aften satt vi sammen og spilte, skreiv noter og røykte sigaretter til kaffen. Det er sjelden sidemelodien kommer først. Men mye av jobben min var å legge melodi til barytonstemmen i første og andre del. Trioen skreiv vi sammen på en halvtime.

Marsjen ble brukt i mange sammenhenger, som kjenningsmelodi for vår lille kvintett. Vi hadde Stian Berg på trompet. Egil Ø. Andreassen på fingerbasun. Espen Ribe på tuba. Jan og jeg på hhv baryton og 2.trompet.

Vi var enige om at melodien i Trio-delen passet bedre for klarinett enn for trompet. Dette fikk vi prøvd ut en eneste gang, da vår venn Stein Enger var med og spilte ved en festlig anledning. På denne versjonen la jeg til klarinetten. Trommer er selvskrevent på marsj, det var dessverre ikke noen trommis med i gruppa den gangen.

Jan var raskt ute med tittelen "Gutta på tur". Det passet bra for oss, og jeg har friskt i minne mange flotte turer vi hadde sammen med musikalsk bagasje. Tankene går til hytta i Finnskogen og de lange lyse sommerkveldene vi hadde der. Og utallige andre. 

Jeg er sikker på at Jan ville vært stolt over å høre marsjen vår på Soundcloud. Det er jeg.

Fred over Jans minne

🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀

My good friend Jan Sørlie and I wrote this march together around the year 2000. Jan had most of the euphonium voice in his head, I think he had been playing this for many years when I got involved.

 One merry evening we sat together and played, wrote notes and smoked cigarettes with our coffee.  It is rare that the side melody comes first.  But a lot of my job was adding melody to the euphonium voice in the first and second parts.  We wrote the trio together in half an hour.

 The march was used in many contexts, as the theme song for our little quintet.  We had Stian Berg on trumpet.  Egil Ø. Andreassen on finger trombone.  Espen Ribe on tuba.  Jan and I on euphonium and 2nd trumpet respectively.

 We agreed that the melody in the Trio part was better suited for clarinet than for trumpet.  We only got to try this out once, when our friend Stein Enger came along and played on a festive occasion.  On this version I added the clarinet.  Drums are self-written on the march, unfortunately there were no drummers in the group at the time.

 I'm sure Jan would be proud to hear our march on Soundcloud.  I am.

 Peace to Jan's memory

Gutta på tur. Marsj

Hildes marsj

Brudemarsj fra Hurum. Cara og Lars pr 24.06.2025

Guttorm Kittelsen «Movements II-version» - Comment

«Movements» was originally a piece for flute and piano. Later an optional bass part was added. When I formed the contemporary ensemble Octoband together with Kjell Samkopf, I rewrote the piece for the ensemble. Octoband made it possible to write a version of «Movements» using sounds and expressions more often found in rock-bands than in classical ensembles. Due to my roots in rock and jazz, combined with my classical training at the Norwegian State Academy of Music, working in the fusion between the two musical styles is one of the challenges I find the most interesting, as well as the most difficult.

«Movements-II version» is originally written for Octoband, which at first had 5 members. Around the time the piece was recorded in 1984, Octoband got a 6th member. I therefore rewrote the whole piece for a group of 6 musicians. Since I had not given the version for 5 musicians a name, and I rewrote the piece for 6 musicians in the same original score as the one for 5 musicians, I considered the last version to be the second version. The first version is the one for flute and piano only (with optional bass). «Movements-II version» is therefore the final version, which is recorded on the LP «Octoband» (AR 1903).

The structures in the piece are very simple. Everything is developed from one twelve-tone row. Even if twelve-tone technique is used, I wanted to derive themes and harmonies as if traditional western harmony was the foundation. For those who might be interested it is possible to find retrogrades and inversions of themes. I feel, however, that the main thing is listening to the music and hopefully be moved by it, rather than tearing it apart to find some fragments of construction.

The flute part is written with «live electronics». A microphone attached to the mouthpiece is running through a pre-amplifier. From the pre-amplifier one clean signal goes directly to the mixer and one signal is directed to a Roland SPV-355 synthesizer with on/off pedal, hold pedal and VCF-pedal (filter). With this patch it is possible to play the flute and trigger the synthesizer at the same time. When using the hold pedal, a «drone-like» pedal tone is created on the synth, over which the flute plays melodic structures. When using the VCF-pedal the tones triggered on the synth passes through the synths filter section as well, creating «swell-effects» on the pedal tones.

As technology develops rapidly I see no problem in trying to achieve the same results by means of newer devices, even when the resulting sound may change. The basic idea of triggering the synth an octave (or two octaves) below the flute, the ability to hold notes as pedal tones and filter the sound with pedals or other means of controllers must however be obtained.

Substitutes may also be used for the rest of the synthesizers and electronic devises used in the piece. They are the Roland Jupiter 8 (with patches on cassette tape), Roland RE-301 Chorus/Echo-machine, Minimoog with Moog Sample & Hold Controller model 1125, 3 x Multimoog, one with Moog Percussion Controller model 1130, Moog Taurus II bass synthesizer, 2 x Spacedrum. As the years passes by I also see the beauty in making performances with the identical devices once written for if possible, as «dinosaurs» in the electronic music industry again seems to be quite popular. One problem might however be to get hold of such devices. I for one have kept mine, so as long as I am alive it is possible to get hold of these devices through me.

The score, parts and a recording of the piece can be obtained at: NB noter (The National Library)
Postboks 2674 Solli, 0203 Oslo, Norway
Telefon: 810 013 00
E-mail:  noter@nb.no

Visiting addresses:
Henrik Ibsens gate 110, Oslo
Finsetveien 2, Mo i Rana
____________________________
© 1983/2013 Guttorm Kittelsen

Movements II-version

Guttorm Kittelsen String Quartet in Four Movements
Originally written in 1976-77 Revised in 1982

«String Quartet in Four Movements» is a piece built on the technique of twelve-tone music. I was in an early stage of studying this musical technique, and therefore an analysis of the construction of the piece should be fairly simply to follow for those interested.

 in the early spring of 1976 I prepared myself to apply for compositional studies for my diploma. One test to be accepted was to write a piece of twelve-tone music in the span of six hours in a classroom at the Academy using no instruments, just pencil and paper. The result became second part of the quartet.

In the spring of 1977, when I was a full time compositional student «Hindarkvartetten», one of the most well-known string quartets in Norway at the time, performed my work in a compositional class at the Norwegian Academy of Music. After having heard the performance of my work I went straight downtown Oslo to my favorite pub and had a beer and a snack. In the pub that night I wrote what became the third movement.

Later that summer I was listening to some jazz music and felt inspired to write something related to a simple groove. After a couple of hours the fourth movement was ready.

The following autumn, in a class, my teacher, Professor Finn Mortensen, talked about the differences between twelve-tone music and serialism. In his definition of serialism all the parameters that is set up in rows or series are dependant of how the manipulation of those rows give different results depending on what choices we take when moving between the extreme points of a given row. This could be ppppp contra fffff in a dynamic scale, C contra B in a chromatic scale etc. You may think of it as «the organisation of - or interaction between extremes». The difference according to his definition then, between twelve-tone music and serialism, would be how many parameters you put in rows. If you only deal with rows of pitches you get twelve-tone music that is thematic and periodic. If you deal with more parameters in rows you get punctual music that is a-thematic and a-periodic, which is then defined as serialism.

With this lecture in the back of my mind I decided I would write a fourth movement to the string quartet, trying out this idea. It felt right to make this the first movement as I needed something like an introduction before the lively second movement, and the two other movements seemed to fit in very well as movement three and four.

To make it difficult for myself I decided to divide the twelve-tone row into three groups of four notes each and only work with four notes at a time and try to make that interesting. I fell down on the idea that the «interaction» had to be glissandi to accomplish that. At the same time, glissandi is an effect that can be easily boring to listen to if used extensively, so I decided to try to avoid a pulse in the movement to make it more like a static field in which the glissandi would just be a part of the overall «moving» soundscape. To accomplish this I first made a graphic score, but decided that a conventional notation would be more accurate and easier to interpret after all.

All four movements are based on twelve-tone technique, as I understood it at the time. It was important for me to be able to document the style, as I knew my mentor, Professor Finn Mortensen, would scrutinize the work later. I have, however, written «String Quartet in Four Movements» with emphasis on melodic lines and harmonic structures, so for a listener, I don't think it is necessary to perceive it as twelve-tone music to enjoy it, which I kind of like.

The score, parts and a recording of the piece can be obtained at:
NB noter (Part of The National Library)
Postboks 2674 Solli, 0203 Oslo, Norway
Telephon: 810 013 00

Visiting addresses:
Henrik Ibsens gate 110, Oslo
Finsetveien 2, Mo i Rana
_______________________
©1982 Guttorm Kittelsen

String Quartet In Four Movements

Guttorm Kittelsen (1951 -) Norwegian composer and musician
(Flute, piccolo flute, guitars, el-bass, double-bass and vocal)

Background

- 1971-1972, 1974-1976: Flute- and compositional studies at the Norwegian State Academy of Music (NSAM).
- 1976-78: Studies in composition at NSAM. Graduated with a diploma.
- 1982: Attended summer programs at Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Techniques of Computer Sound   Synthesis and Stanford University of California on Arranging and Composing for the Jazz Combo.
- 1986/87: Studies of Pedagogical Subjects at NSAM.

Activities

Guttorm Kittelsen is known for his diversity and stylistic breadth. In addition to composing he plays flutes, guitars, electric bass and double-bass. From 1976-1982 he worked as a musician and composer at the National Theater in Oslo, in Norwegian TV and radio and in recording companies. Kittelsen was the founder and a regular member of the contemporary group Octoband. The Window and Movements II-version are written for the group. From 1983-1998 he taught at the Asker Communal Music School in Norway.

His multimedia-theatre work The Window won 1. Prize for Outstanding Original Achievement in 1989/90 in The International New Music Composers Competition in New York USA.

Concert Piece for Symphonic Band & Percussion won 1. Prize in Italy in 1990 in The 11th International Competition for Original Composition for Band. The piece was also performed at the World Music Days 2000 in Luxembourg with Musique Royale des Guides and conductor Norbert Nozy.

Each One's Chasing Happiness - But Happiness Is Just Behind, a ballett commission from the Norwegian Opera & Ballet, was premiered in concert version as the opening concert at the Big Band Festival in Sandvika (Oslo) 30th August 2000.

His production includes two large-scale sacred compositions, Credo and Kyrie. Other orchestral music includes the ballet Each One’s Chasing Happiness - But Happiness Is Just Behind, .two midi-based ballets, multimedia and compositions employing electronics, such as Movements II-version, as well as music for ensembles (some with vocals/choir) and bands, several short pieces for various instruments and electronic music.

Kittelsen has written a comprehensive book on compositional techniques (1978) based on 12-tone technique and serialism.

String Quartet In Four Movements

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