Carillon
Concert
with
Electronics
August 5, 2007 at 3 p.m.
Jeffrey
Bossin,
Carillonneur,
Berlin
Electronics: Eckehard
Güther,
Daniel
Teige
and Wilm Thoben
Electronic
Studio of the
Technical University of Berlin
Program
I.
Curved
Ringing
(2007;
carillon and electronics) World
premiere
Franz Martin Olbrisch
II.
Bellscape
(2004;
electronics) Mario
Verandi
III.
Vox
Veterrima
(1988; carillon and
electronics)
Ricardo Mandolini
Organized
by
CarillonConcertsBerlin in cooperation with the Electronic Studio
of the
Technical University of Berlin
and with the
support of the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und
Medien,
the Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin GmbH and the
Initiative Neue
Musik Berlin e.V.
Franz Martin Olbrisch was born in 1952
in
Mülheim/Ruhr and studied composition at the
Hochschule der Künste Berlin where he was awarded his diploma in
1985. He received many prizes and stipends included one from the
Villa
Serpentara in Olevano in 1985, from the
Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie in
Karlsruhe in 1992/93, from the Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung in
Freiburg in
1998, from the Paul Sacher
Stiftung in Basel in 2001, from the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles
in 2003
and one from the Cité
internationales des Arts in
Paris in 2006. Starting in 1988 he taught composition and
electronics
at the
Universität der Künste Berlin and starting in 1999 at the
Electronic Studio of the
Technical University of
Berlin. In 1994, 2004 and 2006 he lectured at the
Internationalen
Darmstädter Ferienkursen für Neue Musik. Since 2008 he has
been a professor for composition and director of the
Studio for Electronic Music at the Hochschule für Musik Carl
Maria von Weber in Dresden. Olbrisch's music has been
performed at the World Music Days in
Yokohama and Stuttgart, the Donaueschinger Musiktagen, the
Tagen für
neue Kammermusik in Witten, the Festival
international des Musiques experimentales in Bourges, the International
Computer
Music
Conference
(ICMC) and the VIPER-Festival in Basel. His works have been
performed
by ensembles and orchestras such as the Radio Symphony Orchestra
of the
Südwestrundfunk, the
Hessian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the
Arditti String Quartet and the Ensemble Recherche.
Daniel
Teige
at
the computer
Eckehard
Güther
Franz
Martin
Olbrisch
and
Jeffrey
Bossin
Excerpt from Curved
Ringing
by
Franz
Martin
Olbrisch
Curved Ringing is a two-part piece
thirteen
pages long. The title refers to
the English art of change ringing. This
composition is based on a
simple
type of
change ringing with 11 bells. The permutations occur according
to
change ringing rules, i.e. without any repetitions and every
bell
moving at the most only one place. Added to this is the curved
component. The octave and choice of the each of the eleven
single bells
are being continuously changed. The permutations move across
the range
of the carillon in sinus-type waves. So the result doesn't
really
resemble change ringing at all. In order to render the whole
thing
playable various single bells are played alternately on the
carillon
and by the electronics. The same thing happens in the second
part of
the piece except that here the single notes are grouped
together into
chords. The
piece
begins with short sixteenth note figures that gradually descend
from
the highest to the lowest octave of the carillon and become
continuously louder and stronger due to the ever increasing volume
of
the larger and larger bells. At the same time the range of the
motives,
which orginally consisted of small intervals, also increases until
it
sometimes spans as much as two-and-a-half octaves. After that the
figures gradually shrink in size until they only appear in the
octave
starting with middle c and are reduced to a single rapidly
repeated
note at the end. During the course of the following accelerando
the
motives ascend to the next higher octave and expand until they
sometimes
encompass an octave, only to once again become smaller and smaller
until this section finishes with a rapidly repeated e-note. The
second
part of
Curved Ringing
has a
slow tempo and is made of rows of quarter note chords. Each row
always
begins with a minor second and gradually adds lower notes until
they
build to chords spanning as much as two-and-a-half octaves. Each
new
row begins with a somewhat higher note than the row before it
until the
piece ascends to d3. At the same time the rows become
increasingly shorter and their ranger immer smaller until the
work
finally ends with a single high minor second. The electronics of
Curved
Ringing consist of
electronically
treated bell sounds that compliment the carillon part and of the
permutations that complete the change ringing sequences. Because
the
carillonneur performs the piece with the help of a clicktrack
that sets
the tempo, it is – in contrast to Vox veterrima
- not necessary for him to be able to hear the electronics while
the
work is being played or to interact with them. Like Ricardo
Mandolini's
Vox
veterrima
and Lucia Ronchetti's
Come
un
acciar
che non ha macchia
alcuna – Studio sulla luna da Ludovico Ariosto
Olbrisch's Curved Ringing belongs to the technically challenging pieces of music for carillon and
electronics.