Program notes – Page 3 – Cecilia Arditto Delsoglio

Lijnen (2004)

for trombone, viola, contrabass flute and 4 magic lanterns
comissioned by Stichting Kous

In Lijnen sound and image are together sharing a common language in the same level of hierarchy. In collaboration with visual artist Ida Lohman, image and sound work in a one-to-one relationship. Lijnen uses a significantly reduced palette of materials: seven different images and four sounds for three instruments (viola, trombone and contrabass flute). The combination of few elements allows multiple possibilities. Simple and complex. In this piece, both music and image are played in real-time.

• Video

Related post/s in my blog
“Preguntas” (Español)

Lijnen (2004) Read More »

Dos #1 (2011) and Dos #2 (2015)

Program notes

Dos #1 for voice and two pickup players (or tape)
commissioned by Stichting Plan B, Amsterdam
Dos #2 for violin, cello and two pickup players (or tape)
commissioned by DieOrdnungDerDinge, Berlin

Working with recordings brings the possibility to recall different versions of the same piece. Old voices are in counterpoint with the live performance and the music splits into diverse historical lines. As a science fiction movie, the past converges with the present: in an ex-temporary gesture, Schumann is reflected on vinyl, the future for him.
In classical musical instruments, model, year, material, and builder have an enormous impact on the characteristics of their sound. The same happens with domestic appliances: every model, every speaker, every decade, brings its own particular sound.
These domestic appliances are generally built to be used at home and not in a stage. In this music -never better employed the term chamber music- domestic appliances bring the atmosphere of a house to the stage.
Devices are in dialogue with live instruments or the human voice in a “concerto” form. A historical pre-recorded vinyl version of Schumann´s Carnival is manipulated live in a “live electronics” DJ style.
The name Dos (two) refers to the sad bipolar condition attributed to Schumann. Two pickup players, slightly out of synch, build a psychological atmosphere full of distorted mirrors.

Program notes for Dos #2 DieOrdnungDerDinge, Berlin June 2016 (in Spanish)
Colección de piezas compuestas en base al “Carnaval” de Robert Schumann. Música para violin, cello y dos tocadiscos.
Este concierto se basa grabaciones en vinilo de música de Robert Schumann en contrapunto con nueva música compuesta por Cecilia Arditto para instrumentos en vivo.
La grabación histórica congela una versión específica de la música que dialoga en vivo con otro presente musical en una clara metáfora sobre el tiempo: un tiempo congelado en contrapunto con un tiempo nuevo.
Los tocadiscos son considerados también instrumentos musicales. Además de reproducir una grabación específica, cada tocadiscos, tiene un sonido particular en sí mismo, un aura, una historia que imprime una cualidad especial en el sonido reproducido, trayendo no solo las grabaciones del pasado, sino sus características de reproducción.
Las grabaciones originales del Carnaval de Schumann están procesadas en vivo, utilizando los recursos propios de los tocadiscos: alteración del volumen, tono y distintas velocidades (16-33 ½, 45 y 78) y manipulación del vinilo, scratches, ruidos con la púa, etc, en un estilo “low-tech DJ”.
Dos esta basada en el número Chopin del Carnaval op.9 de Schumann, reproducida en dos tocadiscos con grabaciones idénticas en un juego de velocidades cambiantes (16, 33 ½, 45 y 78 rpm) en contrapunto con los instrumentos en vivo. Dos remite a la condición bipolar de Schumann y su diálogo constante con sus “alter egos” presentes en su producción musical.

Link artículo PDF “Modicación de algunos parametros de una grabación en LP al cambiar la velocidad del plato” por Gabriel Abellán (Spanish)

Preparations

https://vimeo.com/579027979https://vimeo.com/579028004https://vimeo.com/579028033

1. Overview

2. Buttons

3. Pitch

https://vimeo.com/579028057https://vimeo.com/579028594https://vimeo.com/579032334

4. Finger gliss.

5. Speed

6. Speakers

https://vimeo.com/579032473

Improvisation with pickups and props

https://vimeo.com/142053950#t=436s

Muziek als vinyls & tapes: Ratatouille TV- Amsterdam

Dos #1:

Download score PDF

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Dos #2:

Download score PDF

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Dos #1 (2011) and Dos #2 (2015) Read More »

Comic book (2011)

Program notes

for clarinet and slide projector
It can also be played with any other melodic instrument

This project is a collection of small pieces, where the live process image from the projectors is in counterpoint with the clarinet and cassette players. It is a book with different episodes in between formats, austere exercises on image and sound, made with analog means: slides, strings, and live music.

Comic book is inspired by the first animation film pioneers like Norman McLaren and his inspiring work on step motion techniques. McLaren was also a pioneer in image and sound research composing visual music and graphical sound. My Comic Book shows these “step motion techniques” in a live version: the black box is just in front of the audience´s eyes.

Text invitation for the premiere in Amsterdam

15 april 19:00 – 22:00
Kulter. Sanderijnstraat 21. Amsterdam West

In the context of the presentation of the book “Notations” in Ámsterdam I would like to invite you to the performance of my new piece “Comic book” (comic in Spanish is also funny) for clarinet and slide projectors. In this occasion we will introduce three episodes of this book: #1. Geometry counterpoint; #2. Solfege lesson and #3. Dancing staff in honor of the Notation book. Everything home made with tinny recycled papers and slide projectors bought in Dutch markets for maximun 15 euros price (ticket is 5!).

https://wordpress.ceciliaarditto.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/comicbook.mov

Related works:
• Musique Concrète -project page

Comic book (2011) Read More »

The air around (2012)

Program notes

for 13 prepared electric fans

In my orchestration book, electric fans are classified in diverse instrumental families considering diverse features: they undoubtedly belong to the wind family; they are on top of that, noise generators; from a kinetic perspective they are members of the instruments “that spins around.” Multiple interpretations of the same allow a special interconnection between objects, spreading the chamber music experience into a unique personal listening.

“A choir of small ventilators, that like a mechanical garden, move their heads bringing sound and movement to the music.”

The more concrete, the more abstract

Rather than prescribing an ideal music of the future, Schaeffer’s didacticism
requires us to submit to a process in which sound is re-imagined or experienced anew, and new effects of listening are discovered and learned.

Ian Stevenson, Schaeffer’s sound effects

The fan is attached to the sounds as much of the sound is attached to the fan. We cannot conceive the machine without the sound, or the sound without the machine: one refers to the other. But when the fan is on stage making music, the sound appears to lose its inherent connection to its source and becomes an independent phenomenon: we start hearing the fan as a music instrument. After this switch in our mind, we can focus on the sound itself: its overtones, pitch, colored noise, residual tones, and all kinds of glorious “side- effects”. Curious enough, the production of fresh air, the main purpose in any electric fan, becomes something completely irrelevant. When the fan goes musical, the sound can be undoubtedly routed with its source without losing its identity: it looks like a fan, it sounds like a fan, it is a fan!. Even the modifications applied to the sound by the use of “extended techniques” enhancing and preserve the nature of the sound as two sides of the same process.

“everyday listening, which identifies sound sources as objects or events; and musical listening, which focuses on the intrinsic properties or features of sounds.”

William Gaver, How do we hear in the world?

When a fan is performing in a concert hall, this new context brings new associations and displacements in our minds. We can concentrate more easily on the sounds because the device is on stage. Same as we focus on the textures, colors, size, and position of Duchamp’s porcelain urinal because it is shown in an art gallery. Context is substantial.

Matter matters
What is music? What is a sound object? This unanswered question triggers all kinds of different theories and works, inspiring not only the composition of new music but mainly changing our way of listening.

• Video (excerpts)
• Photo gallery

Download score PDF

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The air around (2012) Read More »

Anthropology of trash (2020)

Program notes

for alto flute and objects as found in the containers (ca 22’)
I.Textiles II.Glass III. Plastic IV. Paper V.Metal
dedicated to Alu Montorfano

Download score PDF

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Anthropology of trash explores the sound quality of discarded objects. This title is inspired by Thing Theory, a branch of modern Anthropology that studies the dynamics between human subjects and inanimate artifacts.
Anthropology of trash rescues objects from the trash and makes music with them. Its orchestration replicates the compartments of the recycling containers: textiles, paper, glass, plastic and metal which form the different sections of this work. Each section finds unexpected angles when using these common things, that become refined musical artifacts when played together with the flute.
Our simple objects, thanks to the music, are empowered on stage, gaining an abstract and poetic condition. Furthermore, these simple means, which were at death’s door, are granted eternal life by being immortalized in a music score.

Anthropology of trash transforms simple materials into refined sounds. Rescued objects from the trash, which were at death’s door, are granted eternal life by being immortalized in a music score.

In Anthropology of trash, the flute is an extension of the human body, making sounds with the lips, tongue, fingernails and glottis; it also creates subtle modulation of timbre by exploring the vocal tract and the usage of specific phonemes through the body of the flute.
The quasi electronics of Anthropology of trash consist of iterated buzzing frequencies, internal turbulences from multiphonic sounds, and a broad range of colored noises, reminiscent of old analog synthesizers but in an “unplugged” way.
Minimal amplification emphasizes the subtle sonorities of this piece. It is not only a matter of volume as the music coming from the speakers reinforces the illusion that Anthropology of trash is electronic music.

In Anthropology of trash, the flute is an extension of the human body

The Attic
Anthropology of trash turned into The Attic when it was performed in Neue Musik in St. Ruprecht, Vienna, in October 2021 under the theme “The collection”. By replacing a couple of props such as bottle caps by a plastic pearl-necklace and napkins by old handwritten letters, a whole new scenario emerged. In The Attic, the idea of recycled materials is displaced by the remains of a woman found in an attic.
Interestingly, the sounds and performing actions remain the same in both versions. However the connotation of the employed objects brings a very different context to the piece. While the recycled junk found in the bins proposes ideas of activism and environmental commentary, the objects found in the attic, suggest a nostalgic, somehow decadent Stimmung.
This unexpected experience raises a fascinating new question of how visual and theatrical actions bring different meanings to the abstract nature of music. Returning to the Thing Theory, it is intriguing to observe how objects have their own spirit that transcend the realm of sound, adding new expressions and meaning to the music.
Anthropology of trash should be amplified.

Anthropology of trash stage design

Techs/props:

– Minimal amplification for flute and percussion table (see diagram)
– Two music stands with lights
– Percussion table (or any table)
–2 microphone stands without the mics (only the stands) for props

Anthropology of trash (2020) Read More »

Maps of the Water (2007)

Program notes

for solo percussion
dedicated to Arnold Marinissen

“The Cartographer prefers to measure the land with sound waves”.

The whole piece represents a map drawn with sounds. It comprehends different sections: water, metal, wood and skin, modulating from one texture to another in analogy to a traveler exploring different geographies.
Four bags full of water are constantly dropping from the beginning until the end of the piece, adding a rhythmical “water-envelope” and a strong visual component.

Maps of the Water (2007) Read More »

Split piano (2011)

Program notes

6 short pieces for piano, cassette players and props
+ optional activities

Split piano is an ongoing project that collects a series of short works where the piano is split off and perceived from a transversal perspective. The universe of the conventional piano is expanded by using objects, lights, gestures and recordings.
Chapter I: Live movies
#1. Licht / light
#2. Knipoog / wink
#3. Straal / ray
Inspired by the animation techniques created by Norman McLaren, these etudes for one hand, a stand light and sound objects, are thought of as short movies to be played live.
Chapter II: Tapes
#4. Zeef / strainer
#5. Dans / dance
#6. Potlood / pencil
These three pieces are based on intervened recordings of music by Robert Schumann. The piano (and the pianist!) interacts with the tape in different ways: drawing, performing choreographic movements, or using the music notation as part of the performance.
The recordings can be done using vintage cassette tapes or a mobile phone, representing different historical periods, in addition to the dialogue with the music of Schumann. The media devices modify not only the sound color but the act of perception, bringing back Marshall McLuhan s statement “The medium is the message”

(*) Straal / Ray was included in Guy Livingston´s project One minute more; animation by Juan de Graaf.

Download score PDF

Send download link to:

Related works:
• Time machine (2011)
• Gespleten piano

Split piano (2011) Read More »

The magic (2005) – program notes

Program notes

for harp and percussion
dedicated to Arnold Marinissen

The stage shows two sorcerers working in a lab. They are alchemists who use musical instruments and sound objects to perform their magic. A duo for harp and percussion the instruments realm is extended to the world of objects. Metrical metronomes, dropping stones, paper sounds aim to create an aural situation where the theater is acted by the sound.
Magic in the context of this work could be understood like alchemy. The two sorcerers work in counterpoint in their music spells. The sound is not transmuted into gold but into lights, gestures, and theatrical elements. It is not clear what is to be seen, to be heard or to be imagined in this piece. The timpani suggests the big pan from the magicians; it is used mainly like a resonator capturing distant resonances.

They are especially good at transmuting solid objects into soundwaves. In a never-ending modulation wheel, they can change water into air into grains into umbrellas into a c sharp into water again. The sorcerers live in a slightly out-of-phase dimension from each other; for that reason, they relate to each other in canon. We can think that one is the echo of the other, or, in a more adventurous interpretation, that one is the anticipation of the other.

They like experimentation, so, when a spell works, they feel effervescent for a couple of seconds to instantly fall into a melancholic mood. To lighten up, they quickly write down the result of the trick on a paper and give it to the scientists. Magic is not about results; it is about believing in miracles and subtle relationships.
I recognize in their attitude a resemblance with ordinary life, where we live our unsolved spells in canon with our fantasies, slightly late, slightly early.

• “The daughter of the sorceress…” opera page
• Video (excerpts)

The magic (2005) – program notes Read More »

The Cartography and the Magic (2005)

Program notes

for soprano, baritone, oboe, harp and percussion.
part of the opera “The daughter of the sorceresses…”
can be performed independently

The piece is inspired by the dialectical relationship between chaos and order, being the mathematical structure the frame for aleatoric behaviors mainly from the percussion set: ping pong balls falling (the classical example from the chaos theory), water flowing, peas poured from one tin to another, spoken texts, etc. All framed in a strict counterpoint of drops, whispers and a balloon exploding.
The percussion set, among other sound objects, includes pouring water from one glass within a given rhythm. The indeterminacy of the water falling down is struggling against the fixed rhythmical frame. I like to think about indeterminacy and control like two complementary features of the same movement.

This piece is part of the opera The Daughter of the Sorceress… but can be also played individually.

• Go to “The daughter…” project page

The Cartography and the Magic (2005) Read More »

Zand / Sand (2004)

Program notes

The inspiration for this piece came from the observation of a picture of “von Karman Vortex Street” where, under certain circumstances, a complex spiral drawing turns into a fluid stream.
The idea of this twisted pattern changing in time, both in length and in its internal speed, could be translated into musical terms under different perspectives. From this physic phenomenon, I took the idea of this always-expanding movement in a three-dimensional space (the air) and the complex spiral pattern structure.
Physics, like music, is made of rules but mainly of exceptions. It is in between these ideal conditions and real possibilities where questions arise.

RELATED WORKS:

Viaje de las frecuencias en el agua

Zand / Sand (2004) Read More »