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Channel: percussion – Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje
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“And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep”

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2012; dur: 21'; Fl/afl/bfl, cl/bcl, perc, sampler,
2vln, vla, vc, cb; Score and parts at mic.no

For this piece, I have recorded and analyzed some complex voice sounds, sounds that I normally use in free improvisation with the acoustic voice.

Everything played by the acoustic instruments in the ensemble comes from these sounds. The mission to ‘translate’ the voice samples to instruments is put in motion through a detailed mapping of the tiniest fragments within the sound. As there are many overtones in a ‘normal’ sounding sung tone, there are plenty interesting, and conflicting overtones in complex, harsh sounds. I categorise these sounds as multiphonics. All the multiphonics used in the piece are played back through speakers in the ensemble. During composing, I have zoomed into some of them, blown up the details, and stretched them into very slow motion. Sometimes also transposed into something sounding very far from the original sound source. The instruments are left with an overwhelming job attempting to decipher these transcriptions. A few times, the multiphonics are transcribed in real time, and played simultaneously with the original sample.

After transcribing the multiphonics, I started to make voice recordings of some of the parts in the score. This is a tempting idea, to blow up fragments within a recorded voice sound and record the partials with the voice that created it – one could imagine a recorded multi-track piece with multiple generations of recordings based on just one initial sound! However it’s immensely time-consuming. Here, in this piece, I let the idea lead the piece to an unresolved end, as the voice takes over one part after another in a repeated sequence, until everyone, except the clarinet, is left playing reminiscences of a previous texture. All the voice samples performed with the piece are untreated recordings of the acoustic voice.

Samples provided by the composer. Score will be publised at MIC. Comissioned by Cikada. Will be first performed at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2012.


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