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.jpg

Daniel Teige at the computer

Ecki.jpg

Eckehard Güther

OlbrischBossin.JPGolbrisch.jpg    
                 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.