Musiikkiteknologian aineryhmä Centre for Music & Technology
ACOUSMATICA V: Trevor Wishart Encounters in the Republic of Heaven -- All the colours of speech --
maanantaina 24.09.2012 klo 19.00 Musiikkitalo, Black Box Monday, September 24, 2012 at 7 pm Helsinki Music Centre, Black Box
Acousmatica V: Trevor Wishart - Encounters in the Republic of Heaven For the fifth concert in the Acousmatica concert series, the Centre for Music & Technology of the Sibelius Academy is very proud to present the Finnish premiere of Encounters in the Republic of Heaven, the latest work by Trevor Wishart, one of the foremost electroacoustic composers working in the genre today. The concert will begin with an introduction by the composer. There will be a brief intermission between Act 2 and Act 3.
Trevor Wishart (born 11 October 1946 in Leeds, UK) is an English composer, based in York. Wishart has contributed to composing with digital audio media, both fixed and interactive. He has also written extensively on the topic of what he terms "sonic art”, and contributed to the design and implementation of software tools used in the creation of digital music; notably, the Composers Desktop Project. Wishart's compositional interests deal mainly with the human voice, in particular with thse transformation of it and the interpolation by technological means between human voice and natural sounds. This is most evident in his albums Red Bird/Anticredos (1973-77) and VOX Cycle (1980 1988), and also in the compositions Tongues of Fire (1993-93), Globalalia (2003-2004), Two Women (1998), and American Triptych (1999). He is also a solo voice performer and an improviser of extended vocal techniques, using the recordings of his own improvisations to compose his electroacoustic pieces as well, like he did for Red Bird and Vox 5.
Encounters in the Republic of Heaven -- All the colours of speech -“Encounters” brings together everyday stories told by adults and children with the possibilities of sound-transformation offered by the computer. The 8-channel piece begins with the sound of the wind, formed from tens of thousands of human voices, and gradually unfolds the stories of fishermen, farmers and city-dwellers in the North East of England, accompanied by imaginary musical instruments derived directly from the speaking voices. As each story subsides we encounter a sea of human voices organised in unusual ways - speech that waltzes, speech that harmonises, clouds of speech that circle the audience. In the finale of each movement, the colours of the voices are developed purely musically, culminating with speech transforming into song. Trevor Wishart collected recordings from homes, schools, and meetingplaces in the North East of England, and developed the software to make this piece possible, while in residence at the University of Durham (2006-2009). Act 1 was premiered at the Elisabethkirche in Berlin in July 2010. The piece was completed on January 1st 2011, and premiered at the SAGE, Tyneside, and King’s Place, London, in May 2011.
Act 1 (c. 20mins) Introduction:
Voicewind
The Fisherman’s Tale: A retired fisherman talks about the decline of the herring fishing industry on the Northumberland coast. Children’s Stories I:
Small boys talk about themselves and invent stories - A clown went to the circus, fell off into the road, kicked his head and …. The cow that escaped by jumping over a gate, farting a lot….
Interlude:
Speech waltzing
The Budgie:
An elderly woman talks about her talkative companion, a budgerigar.
The Bellydancer:
A large man with a beard goes to a beer festival dressed as a bellydancer. The costume is so convincing that many men ask him to dance. But when he finally takes the costume off, there is uproar. “Bloody Hell, it’s a bloke!!”
Finale Act 2 (c. 17mins) Teens Gossip:
..about life, romance and embarrassing bodily functions.
The Dancer’s Tale:
Joyce describes her lifelong love of ballet, her joys and regrets “This is just so magical…….What excites me, I’ve come to realise, is movement. Everybody moves in a different way.”
Interlude:
Speech clouds
Travelling Butcher:
..selling meat from a lorry parked in the market square. His sales patter is amplified, powered by a noisy generator on the lorry.
Childrens Stories II:
Children (mainly girls) talk about themselves, invent stories and recite half-remembered nursery rhymes.
Finale >>Väliaika/Intermission
