BUT STILL ATTACHED TO LIFE AT ALL FOUR CORNERS

 

end of December 2013

At this point a sketch.
For voice, feathers and a paper sculpture,
percussion, live electronics,
and a baroque ensemble (a=415 hz) with flauto traverso, cembalo, viola da gamba.

Performed at premiere on New Year’s evening by Lore Lixenberg – voice, Berndt Thurner – percussion, Pia Palme – electronics, Sylvie Lacroix – flauto traverso, Sonja Leipold – cembalo, Eva Neunhäuserer – viola da gamba. All photos from premiere by Markus Gradwohl.

Libretto by Pia Palme with texts from Margret Kreidl, SCHLAFEN WEINEN (2002), Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own (1928).

SCHLAFEN WEINEN is published in: 
Margret Kreidl, LAUTE PAARE. Szenen Bilder Listen, Edition Korrespondenzen, Wien 2002. Used by the composer with permission from the author.

The piece includes a fragments/a deconstructed version of the ‘Prelude’ in G-minor from ‘Pieces de Clavecin’ (1687) by Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre.

I made the paper sculpture myself, by wrapping a mannikin puppet with molded layers of simple wrapping-paper. The singer stands behind the sculpture and uses it as a versatile percussion instrument, to be treated with precisely timed movements notated in the score. The title is inspired by a line from the text by Virginia Woolf.

The live electronic setup is partially controlled by feathers moved over light sensors.

Baroque ensemble at premiere: Sonja Leipold, Sylvie Lacroix, Eva Neunhäuserer.

Here are some cuts of the live recording
made with a small central recorder at the premiere (because of the position of the microphone, the percussion part is not quite audible in the recording):

 

 

Some pages of the score for the baroque ensemble: