Radix (2013–14)
a brass quintet

Trumpet in C, Trumpet in Bb, Horn in F, Tenor Trombone, Tuba (F)
Duration: 12'
Commissioned by Ensemble Schwerpunkt, with funds provided by Madetoja Foundation (Madetoja-säätiö) and Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland (Svenska kulturfonden).
Fp: Ensemble Schwerpunkt, 5 November 2013, Helsinki in a concert organized by Korvat auki

This recording is from a live performance by Ensemble Schwerpunkt on 14 June 2015 at the Müncherer Gasteig as part of the aDevantgarde.13 festival (Munich, Germany).

Documentation shared here with everybody's kind permission.

Radix (2013–14) for brass quintet

for 12 voices
Latvian Radio Choir
cond. Kaspars Putniņš
Le temps scintille… –  poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke (several lines from The Duino Elegies) and Paul Valéry (again only some lines - from Le cimetière marin), whose basic atmosphere corresponds to the perception of the miracle of life – life is an airy shimmer, as twinkling time, in which we flow. The material of this work resembles speech melody; the multi-layered intonations and coloring of tone resemble the flow of sub-consciousness.


Paul Valéry
Le cimetière marin
The Graveyard By The Sea
Translated by C. Day Lewis
Rainer Maria Rilke
Duineser Elegien 
Duino Elegies
Translated by  A. S. Kline 

Le temps scintille et le songe est savoir.
[Time's air is sparkling, dream is certainty --
Pure artifice both of an eternal Cause.]

Et le ciel chante à l’âme consumée
[All bounds transfigured into a boundless air]

Wir nur ziehen allem vorbei wie ein luftiger Austausch.
[Only we pass everything by, like an exchange of air.]


Le changement des rives en rumeur.
[And I breathe now my future's emanation]

Sur mes yeux clos, secrets éblouissants,
[Secret which dazzles though mine eyes are closed]

Siehe, ich lebe, Woraus? Weder Kindheit noch Zukunft
werden weniger ....... Überzähliges Dasein 
entspringt mir im Herzen.
See I live. On what? Neither childhood nor future
grows less......Excess of being
wells up in my heart.]

Allez? Tout fuit! Ma présence est poreuse,
[All perishes. A thing of flesh and pore
Le don de vivre a passé dans les fleurs!
Into the flowers that gift of life has passed.]
nehmen immer Abschied
[and are always taking leave.]

Qu’un long regard sur le calme des dieux!
[Are the long vistas of celestial calm!]

Le Temps Scintille (2003)

Herääminen! Taistelu skeemoja vastaan, valmiita turruttavia näkökulmia vastaan, yliopistomaailman uria, kanonisoituja ajatuksia ja uneen vaivuttavaa kaasua vastaan.

Herääminen

MENO

Cyanobacteria controlled (via temperature + pH) Synthdef processed in supercollider with recorded sounds of cyanobacteria movement.

atmospheric sounds of a cyanobacteria symbiosis (i)

Rehearsal for the premiere in March, 2013 at the Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam. Ere Lievonen, Fokker (31-tone) organ; Mikko Perkola, viola da gamba.

The introductory fanfare uses a 9-note scale (3+4+3+4+3+4+3+4+3=31 steps) in the so called Orwell temperament. The toccata is in extended meantone, making much use of septimal and neutral intervals, 1/5-tones, as well as commas that 31EDO tempers out, such as 176/175.

The viola da gamba is tuned as follows: The 7 strings are tuned to the standard A1-D-G-c-e-a-d1 (with meantone fourths). The seven frets are placed so that the pitches on the A strings are as follows: (A) Bb B C C# Cx D# E (= 3-2-3-2-2-3-3 steps of 31), enabling 21 pitches out of 31.

Fanfare en toccata voor Fokker-orgel & viola da gamba

Matilda Seppälä (b. 1993) is a Finnish composer, whose musical education started at the age of six with violin performance. Seppälä started her composition studies 2011 with Jouni Kaipainen in Tampere and afterwards continued studying one year in Riga, Jazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music, Sibelius Academy and Universität der Künste Berlin. Seppälä has developed her musical skills through various productions as composer, musician and producer and in master courses with e.g. Salvatore Sciarrino,  Kaija Saariaho, Beat Furrer, Param Vir, Milosz Bembinow and Jukka Tiensuu. 
 
 
Matilda Seppälä’s music has been performed among others by Caprico orchestra, Avanti!, TampereRaw, NYKY Ensemble, Tampering Ensemble, symphony orchestra FIAM ja Helsinki Chamber Choir. Her works for orchestra, chamber ensemble and choir have been succesfull in competitions such as international ”in modo di Lutoslawski”-competition 2014, Peteris Vasks –competition in Riga 2015 and International Eunojuhani Rautavaara choir composition competition in 2016.

MENO

Matilda Seppälä

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