rerendered - Simon Steen-Andersen
@ “Kontakte”
Musik der Jahrhunderte,
Theaterhaus Stuttgart (06/14/19)
video: Georg Nagl
sound: Ui-Kyung Lee
@ “Kontakte”
Musik der Jahrhunderte,
Theaterhaus Stuttgart (06/14/19)
video: Georg Nagl
sound: Ui-Kyung Lee
"Rerendered is to be performed by a pianist and two assistants. The piece, with its quite peculiar sound world, is created inside a grand piano with microphones extremely close: a feature very typical of Simon Steen-Andersen as a composer. The range of sounds has to span two things: the quite ordinary notes from the black and white keys and all the noises you can produce by playing inside the piano or by preparing the strings. Not, that is, as different layers or as notes with noise effects, but as two integrated materials in balance: a kind of super-instrument, if you like. The powerful amplification has the effect of a microscope on the faint noises, and this produces an intense but delicate situation where the pianist must constantly hold back and struggle to keep the dynamics down. In this way Rerendered unfolds as a whole array of sounds and sound-impressions that move from timbre to timbre integrated with an otherwise very intense piano part.
Two other aspects of Rerendered are important, but are primarily experienced with the eyes, ‘live’. One is that a series of sounds in the last part are so-called ‘anti- actions’ or ‘anti-sounds’; this means, for example, sounds that come from lifting the fingers from the instrument in contrast to striking it with them. The other distinctive thing is that the piece is an attempt to write a kind of social or collective music where the individual sounds only ‘become something’ because several musicians are working together to create them. In fact it is an attempt to take chamber music a step further: from a situation where musicians play alongside one another ‘in a chamber’ to one where they play together. Literally."
source: Edition·S
Two other aspects of Rerendered are important, but are primarily experienced with the eyes, ‘live’. One is that a series of sounds in the last part are so-called ‘anti- actions’ or ‘anti-sounds’; this means, for example, sounds that come from lifting the fingers from the instrument in contrast to striking it with them. The other distinctive thing is that the piece is an attempt to write a kind of social or collective music where the individual sounds only ‘become something’ because several musicians are working together to create them. In fact it is an attempt to take chamber music a step further: from a situation where musicians play alongside one another ‘in a chamber’ to one where they play together. Literally."
source: Edition·S