In der Renaissance begannen die europäischen Künstler beim Malen ein Hilfsmittel einzusetzen: die Linse. In dieser Epoche wuchs das Interesse an perspektivischer und detailgetreuer Gestaltung. Jede Einzelheit des Gemäldes wurde minutiös ausgeleuchtet und inszeniert. Die Einzelobjekte wurden zunächst durch die Linse gemalt, ehe sie dann in einem Bild „komponiert“ wurden. Ein neues Verständnis von Licht prägte die künstlerische Ästhetik dieser Epoche in ähnlicher Weise wie die spätere Erfindung der Fotographie. 

Allerdings ist die Methode, mit einer Linse zu malen, ein Geheimnis der Malerei dieser Zeit. Erst vor kurzem hat der britische Maler und Fotograf David Hockney durch eigene Forschung wichtige Aspekte dieser geheimen Kunst wiederentdeckt und dokumentiert. Er nutzt das Prinzip des Fokus künstlerisch und stellte mit ihm eine Reihe von Werken her.

In dieses Werken ist des Ganze gegliedert durch einzelne fokussierte und dadurch vergrößerte Teile. Zwischen den einzelnen Partien gibt es Überlappungen und Überschneidungen. Im Gegensatz zum Original ergeben sich neue, spannungsvolle Verhältnisses der Einzelheiten zueinander. In jedem dieser Bilder zeigt sich eine Konzentration auf bestimmte Partien, die durch Vergrößerung hervorgehoben sind, ohne jedoch Verzerrungen ist der Achse einzubeziehen.
 
Dieses Prinzip des lokalen Fokus und der durchgehenden Achse ist in Klang und Struktur im Werk Mirror Imange verwendet. Die Resonanz zwischen Streichern (v.a. geriebene Bogenhaare) und Metallsaiten des Klaviers und Multiphonics der Bassklarinette ist klangfarblich bestimmend. Hinzu kommen der Klang der Stimme (bocca chiusa, Brummen oder nasale Töne; bei den Bläsern gleichzeitig mit dem Instrumentalklang), Echoklänge wie auch der Klang des Waldteufels auf der bassdrum. 

Jeder Klang hat seinen eigenen Schwerpunkt und korrespondiert mit anderen Klängen, Klangtexturen und Timbres: jede lokale Vielfalt von Bestandteilen trägt durch Überlagerungen und Kombinationen zur Klanggestaltung bei. Im Ergebnis entsteht eine sehr feine und ungewöhnliche Mischung von Klängen.

Darüber hinaus haben verschiedene Gruppen einen eigenen Raum im Klang, welcher der imaginären Achse entspricht. Dieses Achsenprinzip durchzieht das ganze Werk.

"Mirror Image" for Ensemble (2010/12) part 2

Marc Yeats is an internationally renowned composer and visual artist whose compositions have been performed by the most noted of orchestras and ensembles across the globe. These include UK companies such as The London Sinfonietta and The Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic and the Halle Orchestra and Chorus. Further afield, Marc’s work has also been performed by the Tokyo City Philharmonic, the Atlanta based, Chamber Cartel, and many others. His compositions have gained great acclaim through many radio broadcasts for the BBC and also been broadcast in many other countries including the US, Germany and New Zealand.

Marc’s relationship with the BBC is both strong and enduring, starting with a BBC Scotland performance by the Edinburgh String Quartet more than 20 years ago. His first orchestral work – I See Blue – conducted by Martyn Brabbins, received much acclaim when first performed around the same time. This led to specific BBC commissions, including a piano concerto to open Piano 2000 in Manchester, with Kathryn Stott as soloist, and a solo harpsichord piece ‘Rhema’, performed by Mahan Esfahani and broadcast in 2010 by BBC Radio 3 from the Clothworkers’ Centenary Concert Hall in Leeds.

Selection as one of just 10 to attend the legendary Hoy Summer School in 1994 brought Marc into contact with the late Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. At the completion of the course, Max was keen to support and promote Marc’s work, and conducted his first commission with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra at the St. Magnus Festival in 1997. He and Marc continued to share ideas, and Max took a great interest in Marc’s visual art and compositional work with mobile technologies and a range of asynchronous structural approaches to composition.

Marc is excited to have recently been appointed composer-in-residence to Yeovil District and Dorchester County Hospitals, a position he has also held with other UK and US organisations. Work such as My Blood Is As Red As Yours’ (an orchestral and choral piece commissioned by the Halle to celebrate World Aids Day in 2008 and performed at the Bridgewater Hall) and recent work, such as ‘shapeshifter’ and ‘the observation quartets’ continues to enhance his reputation as a leading contemporary composer.

Dr. Shuhan Hu, Chinese composer and music theory researcher.

She began learning music at the age of 4 from her father, composer and professor in composition. She has been working at the College of Music, Nanjing University of the Arts since 2008, teaching composition and orchestration. She received her PhD in composition in 2019 from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Now she is chercheuse en acceuil at CNSMDP, under the direction of Prof. Frédéric Durieux, and also a private student of Tristan Murail.

During her master's studies at Shanghai Conservatory, she became interested in spectral music and began to study it systematically. Her master's dissertation is entitled "Research on spectral composition based on OpenMusic". In 2015, Tristan Murail started to give regular composition masterclasses to the students of Shanghai Conservatory, and so she attended his composition classes every year thereafter, profoundly influenced by him. Today, she remains a private student of Professor Murail, having regular private classes with him at his home in Provence. During her doctoral studies, she focused on music centered on timbre and sound with her doctoral dissertation entitled "Morphology of Gestures and Textures in Contemporary Music Centered on Timbre and Sound and their Structural Functions". Besides, she has also published two articles on spectral music in the Journal of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, "Art of Music," a very prestigious academic journal in China: Deciphering the Code of Spectral Music: The Concept of Sound in Spectral Composition (Art of Music, Sept. 2010, pp.125-130); On Techniques and Means of Orchestration in Spectral Composition (Art of Music, Sept. 2015, pp.123-131). 

Recently, she also participated in masterclasses with Liza Lim, Yann Robin, Francesco Filidei, Mauro Lanza, Johannes Schöllhorn and many other well-known composers, and has also received their recognition.

Her major works include Xiao, for alto flute (which won the Ex aeqvo prize in the A category of the 2008 Youth International Music Competition); Streaming, for three Chinese plucked instruments (which won third prize in the 2008 "Music of China" International Composition Competition); Le Trou de neige, for ensemble (premiered by the Israel Contemporary Players, conducted by Zsolt Nagy in 2016); The Sea as My Blood, for trumpet, doubled-bell trombone and percussion (will be premiered by Elision Ensemble at the end of 2024); Lamps, and Slices of the Night, for large orchestra (premiered by the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Zhang Liang in 2016); Portrait: Flowing Water, for large orchestra (premiered by the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Zhang Liang in 2018); Happy, Lively, Vengeful Teeth, for piano trio (premiered by Ensemble Fractales, conducted by Jean-Bernard Matter, at Schloss Reichenau, Austria, in 2019) ; While the Fishes Playing the Sonata, the Deeper the Water Is, the Longer the Song Is, for quartet of doubled-bell brasses (premiered by Ensemble Musikfabrik in Dec. 2020); Les Fleurs de pêcher s'épanouissent à travers les fissures des os, for solo cello (commissioned by Radio France, premiered by Marie Ythier at Festival Présences 2022), etc.

"Mirror Image" for Ensemble (2010/12) part 2

Ying Wang Composer