A sound, a narrow, a channel, an inlet, the straits, the barrens, the stretch of a neck (2023)
for large spatialised orchestra commissioned by the Stuttgarter Staatsorchestra and Podium Gegenwart im Deutschen Musikrat
WP February 2024, Stuttgart, Liederhalle, Beethovensaal Stuttgarter Staatsorchester Dir.: Pablo González
In this piece for orchestra spatialised around the concert hall, I was concerned with the relationship between humans and space. The space that is explored here is the Beethoven Saal of the Liederhalle. The curved architecture may seem as inflexible as the Antartic Regions in 1911. The musicians are distrubuted throughout the hall. They, and the sound objects form themselves in the space and are formed by the space. The sounds create a dramaturgy of the opening of space and of movement of sounds in space.
The inspiration for the piece is rooted in my analysis of William Forsythe’s choreography one flat thing reproduced and my subsequent research about the Terra Nova expedition of Robert Falcon Scott and his team in the Antarctica (1910-1913), especially the memoirs and filming made by Herbert G. Ponting of this tragically failed expedition.
In this piece I am conceptually inspired by this expedition and the great white environment of the Antarctic regions. Signals (percussive morse code) and animalistic calls (transcriptions of underwater sounds from Weddell Seals and the cries of the Emperor Penguins) are transmitted from the stage, and eventually answered by instruments moving throughout the hall and in stations above and surrounding the audience. The dramaturgical structure is shaped by rivalling processes, some with an exponential, unstoppable development , some in a manner that allows for recuperation (what scientists call a „healthy line“, when referring to the process of glacial melting). In this manner, the signals and calls are not only affected by their position in space: the entire masses, points and streams of sound travelling through the hall and therefore our aural perception of the space is affected by these different processes.
“Stuttering rhythms, fed with Morse signals. Sounds transformed from the voices of penguins and seals. A violin solo quoting Vivaldi’s “Winter”, but bizarrely transformed . . surprising if not spectacular expansions of the sound field . . not only because she shows conviction, [Black] is one of the most interesting, inspiring personalities the composing world has to offer. This is because she has an almost unlimited sound imagination. In her new piece, the explosive beginning is followed by rhythmically finely chiseled, vibrating soundscapes. One can associate a white desert, gigantic ice mountains, cracked pack ice. The tonal processes change: into eloquent murmurs, buzzing, whirring, whispering, through attacks and hatching. The sound zone expands into the entire space of the Beethoven Hall. Brass and woodwind play down from the gallery and the boxes, the string instruments begin in the foyer and approach the stage in small groups and at a flocking pace: playing endless glissando spirals, grounded by the muffled, menacing beats of the bass drum. The agile, highly concentrated conductor Pablo González often acts as a sound director here, making sounds swell and shrink again. Melting processes of the glaciers.” Verena Großkreutz, Stuttgarter Zeitung, 20.02.2024, page 27.
“Stotternde Rhythmen, angefüttert mit Morsesignalen. Klänge, transformiert aus Pinguin- und Robbenstimmen. Ein Geigensolo, das Vivaldi’s “Winter” zitiert, dabei aber bizarr überformt . . überraschende bis spektakuläre Ausweitungen der Klangzone.. . nicht nur, weil sie Haltung zeigt, gehört [Black] zu den interessantesten, inspirierendsten Persönlichkeiten, die die komponierende Welt zu bieten hat. Denn sie verfügt über eine schier unbegrenzte Klangfantasie. In ihrem neuen Stück folgen auf den explosionsartigen Beginn rhythmisch fein ziselierte, vibrierende Klangflächen. Man darf eine weiße Wüste assozieren, gigantische Eisgebirge, geborstenes Packeis. Die klanglichen Prozesse verändern sich: in beredetes Raunen, Sirren, Flirren, Säuseln, durch Attacken und Schraffuren. Die Klangzone weitet sich aus in den gesamten Raum des Beethovensaals. Blech und Holz spielen von der Empore und den Logen hinunter, die Streichinstrumente beginnen im Foyer und näherns ich in Grüppchen und im Scheckentempo der Bühne: endlose Glissando-Spiralen spielend, geerdet duch dumpfe, bedrohliche Schläge der großen Trommel. Der wendige, hochkonzentriet arbeitende Dirigent Pablo González fungiert hier oft als Klangregisseur, der Klänge anschwellen und wieder schrumpfen lässt. Schmelzprozesse der Gletscher.” Verena Großkreutz, Stuttgarter Zeitung, 20.02.2024, Seite 27.
“ein aufregendes Hörerlebnis, das man nicht vergaß.” Alexander Walther, Online Merker, 18.02.2024